We are poker. It's not only our business, it's a passion too. But those of us who work at PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker are in a bit of a netherworld. We provide the most online poker games of any company on the planet (by far), but we can't play in those games for real money. We offer what we and many other believe are the best run live poker tournaments in the world, but the main events of most of those tournaments are usually off limits to us.
But this past October, we did an experiment: Rational Group (PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker) employees were allowed to play in the UKIPT main event on the Isle of Man - we wanted to see how it felt to us and how the community responded. I wrote about that in an earlier blog post.
So it was pretty exciting for us when our colleague Chris Jonat ended up at the final table of the main event, ultimately finishing 4th for £34K. In fact, we had the final table live webcast up on the TV's at the Isle of Man office, and when Chris busted out, there was a spontaneous standing ovation all over the office.
After the UKIPT event was over on IoM, the banners were down from the Villa Marina, and the last player was seen safely home, we asked ourselves how it went. As with anything you do, we felt there were ways we could improve. But to the question of Rational Group employees playing in the main event, the answer was an almost unanimous "Yes!"
First, and most importantly, the players loved it. They saw the elegant patches on our sleeves and said "So you work for PokerStars? What department?" Our people said, "So you play on PokerStars? What do you like? What do you not like?" And we were off to the races - people with a common interest (poker played on PokerStars) finally sitting down at a poker table together and sharing thoughts, ideas, and stories.
We were a little worried how people would respond when one of our employees hit a two-outer or whatever. And as you might expect, PokerStars and Full Tilt employees gave and took their share of bad beats. The penultimate PokerStars employee to depart the main event was Chris "What a shirt!" Straghalis, who busted 19th to a three-outer. Everybody said, "Bad beats. In a poker game. Whouda thunk?"
Furthermore, we were delighted by the response inside PokerStars and Full Tilt. More than 30 people from the Rational Group put up their own money to play in the UKIPT event, and the buzz in the offices was palpable. All during the week of the event, the context of virtually every water cooler discussion was what was happening down at the Villa Marina. Who's playing, who has chips, and when are you going down to see the show?
With this first success under our belt, we're going to expand this trial to the UKIPT stop in Dublin (not coincidentally, also home to a Rational Group office). So you will see PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker employees playing in the UKIPT main and side events at Dublin. Based on our experience in the Isle of Man last year, we think you'll love it. Our employees will be sporting patches (or some other clear form of identification) and will be happy to answer almost any question you can throw at them about working for the Rational Group.
But with that said, don't expect us to be pushovers at the table. We spend most of our time running online poker games and live poker tournaments. But when we sit down at the table, we're there to play.
See you at the felt; bring your A-game.
Lee Jones the Head of Poker Communications at PokerStars; he first joined the company in 2003. He has been involved in the professional poker world since the mid 1980's.