Many aspects of the poker industry were affected by the events of April 15, 2011—the day commonly referred to as Black Friday—when the US government effectively cordoned off the US from the majority of the rest of the online poker playing world.
In poker, brand ambassadors are uniquely positioned between the companies they represent and the people that make up the potential customer base for those companies. This distinct placement provides these ambassadors with a multifaceted perspective that we here at pokerfuse thought was worthy of considering when looking back at how such a monumental event has impacted the industry that so many of our readers are passionate about.
As a result, we reached out to some of the brand ambassadors that we though represented a cross section of the poker community and could provide meaningful perspective to the discussion of how poker has changed over the past ten years since Black Friday.
The opinions of the following ambassadors included below include:
- Kara Scott – Ambassador for 888poker and previously hosted some of the most popular poker shows including High Stakes Poker, the European Poker Tour, the World Poker Tour, the Super High Roller Bowl, the World Series of Poker on ESPN
- David Lappin – Ambassador for Unibet Poker and host of The Chip Race podcast
- Chris Moneymaker – Ambassador for Americas Cardroom, former ambassador for PokerStars and 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion
- Daniel Negreanu – Ambassador for GGPoker, former ambassador for PokerStars, six-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, two-time World Poker Tour Champion and member of the Poker hall of Fame
Kara Scott
How did the role of a poker ambassador change as a result of Black Friday?
The poker industry as a whole was such a different place, pre-Black Friday. There was a lot more money for things like TV programmes and advertising. I was hosting a number of TV shows in both England and the USA at the time. When the major poker companies stopped wanting to put money into sponsoring TV content, a lot changed for me, very quickly. High Stakes Poker being cancelled was so disappointing and led to me having to leave my home in Santa Barbara and head back to the UK. Seeing Poker Central bring back so many of the old shows that we lost after Black Friday has been fantastic.
Following the events of Black Friday, how did your role in the poker community change?
It’s hard to watch something that you take for granted as being 'normal’ just go away in the blink of an eye
I don’t think my role changed all that much. Although, pre-Black Friday I was lucky to be sponsored to play in a lot more big, live tournaments in the USA. Afterwards, the tournament circuit in the USA changed and my home changed as well as I left the USA. I ended up focusing on recreational players as that was more and more what I was becoming. I’d never been an actual full-time poker pro but once I stopped playing so many big events, it became more important for me to be an ambassador for the huge number of players who love poker because it’s entertaining and fun, rather than playing it for a living.
How did Black Friday affect the trajectory of your poker career?
Without HSP keeping me in the USA, I ended up moving back to Europe full time and concentrating more on my career over here, where I could also play more easily online. I’ve always loved the European poker circuits and I was lucky that I could just move home and carry on. A lot of American poker players didn’t have that option.
Black Friday was ultimately the result of the proliferation of unregulated sites. What is your view of unregulated online poker sites today?
I wish that Americans (and other territories without easy access) had better, regulated solutions. It’s been such a long time and the strides forward in regulating state by state are great but often frustratingly slow. It does make me wonder if and when a more 'global’ online poker will return.
If you look at the WSOP Main Event numbers, there was an immediate drop in entrants after Black Friday and it took us until 2018 to get back to the previous height.
What is your most vivid memory of Black Friday?
I was in the UK working on a TV poker show and that was actually incredibly lucky for me. It meant that I could access my account and withdraw my balance. I remember being there on set with my laptop and telling some of the American players who were there for the event what was happening. We were all shocked but it was very hard to actually believe it was the massive, permanent change we soon saw it to be. It’s hard to watch something that you take for granted as being 'normal’ just go away in the blink of an eye.
How has live poker changed as a result of Black Friday?
For years, there were a lot of players who were unable to play online to either build their bankrolls to play live or be able to satellite into events as we’d done before. If you look at the WSOP Main Event numbers, there was an immediate drop in entrants after Black Friday and it took us until 2018 to get back to the previous height. It was a real anchor thrown into the momentum of the WSOP Main Event.
David Lappin
How has what it means to be a poker pro changed as a result of Black Friday?
If you were an American online player with a family, it was pretty much game over
There’s a lot to unpack there because it meant different things to different people. If you were an American online player with a family, it was pretty much game over, as it was for many of my friends. If you were an American online player who could go abroad, well then it was off to Canada, Mexico, Europe or Asia.
For some people I know, that was a positive transition, but for others, being uprooted was not conducive to a happy or successful life. For the rest of us, it was a scary but relatively brief moment when we thought our money might be gone, followed by a massive and instant deterioration in the juiciness of games. Overnight, it was a lot harder to win at the same clip as before. This is my 15th year as a professional and three of my best five years in poker were before 2011.
How did the role of a poker ambassador change as a result of Black Friday?
The role of a poker ambassador or sponsored pro is a lot different today than it was pre-Black Friday, but I’m not sure how much of it can be put down to that event. An inspirational or aspirational figure during the boom times of the 2000s was either someone who was beasting everything or a Cinderella story. They were easy narratives to market.
Poker is a skinnier game these days. The market is more diffuse, more ring-fenced and more regulated. There’s also very little poker on mainstream TV now. So while there are still players at the top winning millions, patching up one of those players has very limited upside when the only people who will see them are existing poker fans tuning into streams. The sites decided that they need more bang for their buck. They need content creators who will find an audience, retain customers to their brand and hopefully acquire new ones too.
How did Black Friday affect the trajectory of your poker career?
The single biggest impact of Black Friday for me was I had just been hired by Full Tilt to be their new blog-writer. Michael Craig had left the company, and I had been given his job on a provisional basis. Assuming I had done well, I would have gotten $250 per blog and 100% rakeback on the site.
I encourage people to play poker with two fundamental expectations – your money should be safe and segregated, and the site should be actively pursuing cheats.
The rakeback would have been huge for me as I was 40-tabling SNGs at the time. I could have easily cleared $250,000 in a year before poker profits. Instead, I wrote one blog and sent it to them on April 11th. On April 13th, it hadn’t gone up so I gently nudged Brian Danilo in Full Tilt to check on it. He said something to the effect of ‘the shit has hit the fan and we have a lot going on’. Two days later, the site was down.
Following the events of Black Friday, how did your role in the poker community change?
I’m not sure I’ve ever had a role in the poker community per se. I’ve always tried to make content and be open about my opinions. I guess my sphere of influence has incrementally grown down the years. I was definitely more US-centric before Black Friday. I lived in Connecticut for four years and even when I was in Ireland, I lived on American time.
Black Friday was ultimately the result of the proliferation of unregulated sites. What is your view of unregulated online poker sites today?
This is a very complicated question and there are many shades of grey, but ultimately my answer is player-focused. Most new poker apps are unregulated, unlicensed and very dangerous. They circumvent the laws via the agent system which is super risky and I believe long term to be a recipe for disaster. Most of these sites don’t have real security or integrity teams. A couple of the biggest sites play fast and loose with the UIGEA, ring-fencing in Europe, Australia’s ban and other regulations. They discreetly encourage VPNing. They might have more about them in terms of company infrastructure, but those practices still pose a huge risk.
I work for Unibet, but I consider myself an ambassador for poker first, and as such, I encourage people to play poker with two fundamental expectations – your money should be safe and segregated, and the site should be actively pursuing cheats.
Chris Moneymaker
How did the role of a poker ambassador change as a result of Black Friday?
Unregulated sites done right are like crypto currencies, not controlled by others telling you what you can’t do.
Black Friday was tough for ambassadors. We couldn’t comment much or do much. We would talk to senators and congressmen, attend fundraisers and support the PPA, but other than that it was tough to do a lot. Working with PokerStars was awesome, but I literally had to travel to do anything work related. Like anything.
Was Black Friday ultimately good or bad for online poker and why?
Black Friday was horrible for the poker industry. It cost thousands of people their jobs so that the government could get their cut. Destroyed the growth of the game in one day.
Black Friday was ultimately the result of the proliferation of unregulated sites. What is your view of unregulated online poker sites today?
I obviously promoted unregulated poker sites, always have. We supposedly live in a free country. The only reason I can play online poker is because the government can’t figure out how to get their cut from operators and players. Unregulated sites done right are like crypto currencies, not controlled by others telling you what you can’t do.
How has live poker changed as a result of Black Friday?
Live poker took an uptick since Black Friday but not a ton because poker was good and live poker was already booming. In the last few years live poker was slowing until obviously the virus killed it.
Daniel Negreanu
What is your most vivid memory of Black Friday? Can you remember how you found out about it?
My agent Brian Balsbaugh has my home phone number but he has never really used it. I remember it was about 9am, well before the wake-up time of any poker pro, and I saw the phone ring with his number on the caller ID. Immediately, before picking up the phone I knew it had to be something bad. Luckily it wasn’t followed up with FBI knocking down my door or anything.
Has what it means to be a poker pro changed as a result of Black Friday?
I wouldn’t say that has changed, poker has always evolved and changed, and a professional player either advances with the times or is left behind. The main game in Las Vegas used to be 7 Card Stud. If you were a pro, that would be your game. Then Hold’em came around, and those that learned the new variant survived, while the others would struggle to stay afloat.
How did the role of a poker ambassador change as a result of Black Friday?
before picking up the phone I knew it had to be something bad. Luckily it wasn’t followed up with FBI knocking down my door or anything
I think the biggest thing that changed there is the fact that US-based pros were now at a disadvantage since they would have to travel to play online. It also cut a lot of opportunities for young up-and-coming players across the board.
Did Black Friday affect the trajectory of your poker career?
Many people were affected significantly, but I wasn’t really one of them. I was never an online poker pro, but right around that time I remember buying a new setup to get more into online poker as a result of playing some matches against Viktor “Isildur1” Blom.
Following the events of Black Friday, how did your role in the poker community change?
Fingers start pointing in your direction, justified or not. People want answers, but I was lucky that the company I was with handled the Black Friday debacle with class in every aspect.
I don’t see how you could make any argument that it was good overall. Maybe there are some silver linings you can point to, but decimating a huge chunk of the online player pool isn’t good.
Was Black Friday ultimately good or bad for online poker and why?
I don’t see how you could make any argument that it was good overall. Maybe there are some silver linings you can point to, but decimating a huge chunk of the online player pool isn’t good. It also likely led to other countries like Australia following suit, and in the European countries brought attention to the issue which fenced in a lot of countries from each other.
How has live poker changed as a result of Black Friday?
I guess that is where one could argue it helped, but I disagree overall. The main event of the WSOP, for example, would have over half the entries qualifying online. I also think that those that love poker and get a taste online, are more apt to want to try playing face to face.
