blonde poker forum

A Message to the Poker Community


There is no easy way to say this, but, at the end of the day yesterday, Federated Sports + Gaming filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Our company needs a new start.

This reorganization filing is an important first step in that direction and our goal is to keep the Epic Poker League and all of our key initiatives – including the Global Poker Index, epicpoker.com, the Epic Poker game on Facebook, and the Heartland Poker Tour – moving forward with a continued spirit of innovation. We will most likely accomplish this by entering into an agreement with another firm that shares our passion and vision – a process we had been working toward prior to the filing.

Everyone on our talented team – employees, contractors, and partners, alike – have put their hearts into this business and have worked tirelessly to help bring Epic Poker to life. The effort to reorganize under Chapter 11 is, in part, about honoring their work, honoring the generous support and participation of our league members, and fulfilling our collective vision to help elevate and further celebrate the game of poker.

As Annie stated in a letter she sent to our league members today, it is our full intention to complete, as planned, Season One of the Epic Poker League.  However, we do not yet know when Event 4 and the Season One Championship will be staged.

When we have specific details regarding the event schedule – and about what comes next for Epic Poker and Federated Sports + Gaming – we will share what we can, as soon as we can.

In the interim, please know that we appreciate the support so many of you have shown us, and we thank you, in advance, for your patience as we work through this reorganization process.

On behalf of everyone at Federated Sports + Gaming,

Jeffrey Pollack

Executive Chairman


http://www.federatedinc.com/news/headlines/a-message-to-the-poker-community

I thought it was a stupid idea for a venture even before Black Friday. How did they possibly expect this to be sustainable, with no online partner and struggling to even find someone to broadcast it?

Good ol Annie duke!

[  ]  good idea


[  ] from good people


[  ]  sad it's failed.

Can't say I would be sad to see it go.

[   ] Surprised.

[X] GTFO Annie Duke

In before Negreanu gloating, unless he has already!

I still think it's a good idea. Problem was they had devisive people running it, started it at the nut worse time for a new poker venture in the US and held all the events in Las Vegas when all big name US poker players were evacuating to Canada.

ya blowjob woman who definitely isn't related to a massive skank. she should deffo be in charge of lots of money and telling people that they have an 'ethics committee'. I don't see how anyone can play if they have that!!

hi der men the master of cheating oh hi der mr I owe the poker community 3 million you wanna play too? come on in.

oh and btw we're going to tell everyone in the world who we think is the best cos that should be listened to....


IDIOTS GONNA IDIOT.

How to sum things up in two great posts

 ;applause;

Should't this thred just be called Epic Fail

enjoyed watching the events

Writing was kinda on the wall when they had to pay the network to broadcast it

A lot of the US shows bought air time though; Poker After Dark, The Big Game.  Not surprised this one failed though.

i was agog when annie duke got to announce 'shuffle up & deal' on one the wsop ME days last summer, never mind fronting a new tour.

the incident where a convicted pedophile won a seat in the super/sat & was then told he couldn't play the ME & oh btw, no you're not getting the $20k for the seat you just won, just your initial $1500 buy-in was just plain wrong.

alas it seems a lot of the pros are only too happy to promote anything old thing if it gets there mugs on the telly;

the 'this is our league' soundbite had me both grinding my teeth & rolling around on the floor in equal measure.

i did enjoy watching it tho if i'm honest...

I guess people will still play on full tilt when it relaunches, but they can't seriously expect people to be willing to stump up $20k to play any of these future events if they find a way of continuing. 

gg $20k seems so likely to me.

Chino Rheem winning $1 million in the first comp was lol. Just about covered what he owed out to people :)

Putting aside the concept of added value (which obviously all poker pros like) do you like the concept of a pro-only tour Julian? Or does anyone else? Personally I think it's an idea perpetually doomed to fail, but interested in what others think.

Actually writing a column on this very subject right now - also think it is a doomed concept. Just like the WPTs side project the professional poker tour, Onyx Cup, and all those stupid rankings systems nobody gives a shit about.

What makes poker special is the inclusive factor of it. My mum plays poker, and if the cards fell her way she could beat Phil Ivey heads up. The fact that people saw Moneymaker beat the best in the game and become world champion, and then the people who watched that could go out and do the same thing with ease, is the reason there was a poker boom.

Quite frankly, I am getting sick of anything that kiss the asses of the 'pros', we need to stop putting them on pedestals and remember that for poker to work, we need to think about the majority.

If I recall correctly, he wasn't a convicted pedophile. I think he was charged for mooning a man in a public bathroom.

Now I am all for a jovial mooning when the time is right, but choosing a public bathroom is probably the worst place going.

A nursery?

I'm not sure I agree with the last bit. I like celebrating achievement in poker and I like there being pro players for people to look up to. These are good things. A pro tour is not.

For starters it's based on a nonsense premise that the best players will win a tournament. You can't have a PGA style poker tour based on a format where luck is as much a decider of the winner as skill. Poker is not a sport.

Besides poker tournaments are already self selecting to a degree due to the buy-in. The super high rollers are basically a pro league, and that is their function. To provide entertainment and headlines.

I actually think its a good concept that in the right environment could work really well. I think that the idea was ahead of its time. It didn't help that it was being spearheaded by one of pokers villains, had a terrible name and came about right after black friday.

In a few years time when poker is back on the map in the US and viewer numbers are on the up, I can't see why it wouldn't work. The pros will play because there is big overlay, the sponsors will put up the money for said overlay because the demand for poker on TV is there and the broadcasters will get on board for the same reason.

Trying to be a moral compass in this line of work was never really going to work out either, you're always going to get peoples backs up and thats the last thing they needed when its popularity was on a knife edge anyway.

If the same idea came back but was being spearheaded by someone like Mike Sexton or another respected member of the community and it didn't have a lame title I think it could work, and that it would actually make for more interesting viewing than the usual tournament shows. Get a high level thinking commentator like Oliver Busquet doing commentary and I think it'd make really interesting viewing.

I am not sure there is As much TV appeal as you think Dan. There seems to be less coverage with stars cutting back and Eddie and Bajul at Matchroom both saying that there has to be a wider public appeal before they have another shot at poker.

 I think that although the likes of Busquet have a place in the booth they just don't hold the audience captive long enough to be appealing to the masses. Marty Wilson covered the majority of the 4 days of the inaugural genting leg and was excellent from start to finish.  Jesse May and Mike Sexton could pull off it but not many others could.

Have to say that of all the people who have done the Dtd stream then Simon Alex and Tighty have stood out for me.

Yeah thats what I was saying, given time when the TV demand comes back it seems like a good idea

Oh right. Yes we defo need another Moneymaker effect given all the bad press of late.

I'm not convinced there is that much demand for poker on TV. Even in the US. Most of the US shows had low numbers and were funded by the online sites as a marketing tool. For sure those will return. But do you really need some forced and unconvincing 'pro' format to do that? What's wrong with the WSOP, WPT, NAPT and all the other tours? Or cash games?

Also when the first series of the WPT came around the people playing in those (Esfandiari, Hansen etc) weren't stars. They became stars because of the TV show. And that WPT was arguably one of the biggest factors in creating the poker 'boom' in the US.

When you have to call something 'Epic' just to try to grab a bit of extra attention I'm afraid it's doomed to failure.

Fyp Mr Pie

Trying telling Mitch Johnson that pies are failures...

Danny (of course not exactly neutral) weighs in on epic and other topics

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHXaCLSiNRI

Poker in general needs a hero, someone that could possibly spearhead it’s popularity to the mainstream again.. Just like Hulk Hogan did for Wrestling in the 80’s.  This person may not need to come in the form of a poker player.. 

Also for people that do not understand poker to the degree that a normal poker player would, they also need a commentator that has some sort of charisma, intelligence and comedic appeal. 

Gabe Kaplin is a great example; he was smart funny and also gave good analysis on the cards too.  Since leaving HSP their ratings plummeted.

The most popular shows on TV are aired between the hours of 8-10pm that’s the time when people are relaxing from a hard days graft and sitting with loved ones.

Now bearing in mind that more men would watch poker shows then women (I’m just speculating) they need something to entertain couples, so for the poker player you have in depth analysis of the hands played and for the non poker player you have someone that is entertaining and keeps you interested in the show, plus having a 30 minute format would work better based on the hour it’s aired.


So in my opinion for the future success of poker shows they will need the following:

A.   Mixture of top pros and average poker players
B.   VT on the players to get the viewers invested (We need someone to route for)
C.   Commentators that are Charismatic, Funny and intelligent
D.   The Dream (A Prize that is substantial enough to change ones life)
E.   30 Minute formats.

Now moving onto Epic Poker / Federated Gaming

The concept is good for the upper echelons of the poker community; they have a basis for bragging rights and quantify their success against their piers in a much more collective way.  But this does not differ from something like DTD having a closed tournament for its regulars and the winner holds bragging rights until the next one.

The problem that they have based on the limited amount of information that I have read is, no short term business plan, they directed a lot of traffic to a their website, held and filmed a few tournaments but did not create a sustainable revenue source.. In other words “they were pissing in the wind”

For any business to succeed it needs to concentrate both on short term targets to achieve long term goals, just like when I was in the early stages of setting up my tech company in 2005, I would work 6 days a week and then on Sundays I would do the markets to bring in some short term cash. The importance of this cash was that it kept food on my families table and also at the same time it allowed me to reinvest all my funds from the business in growing the business. 

What Epic seemed to have done is created this long term dream, without thinking they needed short term revenue streams to make the dream into reality or a plan B if the funds dried up, the question is did their initial backers pull out because of the overlays in accounting? Which looks to be the case.  Whatever the case this venture seems to be poorly managed from the outset, which is a shame for their employees..

In short I think Epic/Federated Gaming have been very naïve and bearing in mind the shear scale of their operation, this will again cast a negative light on the poker community as a whole, which is not great for building a case to get the online poker legalized in the U.S

Adios

Yer yer what he said  ;adamm; ;whistle; ;tightend;

Didn't Kabe leave High Stakes Poker the same time all the Full Tilt pros stopped playing. The best players to watch, defo in the later series, were Ivey and durrrr, maybe with Patrik third. When the top three attractions are no longer on the show, the drop in ratings is probably more faily attributed to that

Maybe a mixture of both...  Well I nearly lost interest when Sammy Farha stopped playing.. What a legend calls Phil Hellmuth pocket  Qc Qd with  Ks 7d and says "You want to chop"...

Only player that comes close to this is the legend that is Bingo from the Vic...

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/12981-epic-poker-bankruptcy-leaves-mountain-of-debt

On Feb. 28, the Epic Poker League shut its doors, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Announcing the bankruptcy, Federated Sports and Gaming, Epic Poker’s parent company, Executive Chairman Jeffrey Pollack said via a statement on the company website: “Our company needs a new start. This reorganization filing is an important first step in that direction.”

However, Pollack’s optimism could be short lived, considering court filings show that Federated Sports and Gaming has racked up sizable debt in its short existence and, to date, reorganization plans have been rejected by the bankruptcy court.

Epic Poker ran just three poker tournaments, adding $400,000 to each prize pool and paying for TV time buys for the programming. It cancelled its fourth tournament, along with a fifth, which promised a $1 million freeroll for the league’s top 27 performers in the inaugural season.

Bankruptcy filings show more than 100 creditors are owed, in total, more than $5 million.

Federated Sports and Gaming had, at the time of the filing, only $15,000 in cash.

The majority of Federated’s debt is owed to two companies; $2 million to Las Vegas-based regional casino operator Pinnacle Entertainment (PNK. NYSE) and more than $2 million to All In Production, the Fargo, N.D., company that agreed to sell Federated its Heartland Poker Tour last year.

Some of the significant creditors include television production company 411 Productions, $541,373, lawfirm Kirkland & Ellis, $250,000, public relations giant Rogers and Cowan, $71,391 and Savage Tournaments, $33,333. A number of Federated employees, smaller poker support companies, independent contractors and even the charitable Disabled American Veterans are listed as creditors.

Federated’s bankruptcy is actually for two entities; Federated Sports and Gaming, the company that operates the Epic Poker tour, and a subsidiary company, Federated Heartland, that operates the Heartland Poker Tour per a acquisition mired in non-payment.

Documents Show Large Loans, Unpaid Acquisitions

Court documents show that Federated Sports and Gaming burned through cash at such accelerated levels that it did not even make its first payment when acquiring its largest and only profitable asset, the Heartland Poker Tour.

Heartland Poker Tour, acquired by Federated on June 10, 2011, hosts poker tournaments in 15 states. The company got its start in 2005 and recently held its 100th casino event. Its poker programming is broadcasted in syndication to more than 100 million U.S. homes each week.

Court documents show that Federated was obligated to pay All In Productions $2.95 million to complete the acquisition of the Heartland Poker Tour.

Federated failed to make even make its first payment related to the acquisition.

On Oct. 24, All In Productions filed a complaint against Federated for failing to make the first payment of $1 million due by Sept. 30, 2011.

Federated, per the original deal terms, was to have the entire Heartland purchase paid by Dec. 15, 2011. According to court documents, it paid nothing by that date.

Instead, Federated Sports and Gaming borrowed more money.

Court documents show the company borrowed $2 million from Pinnacle Entertainment via a Secured Promissory Note dated January 9, 2012.

According to court documents, “$1,000,000 of the funds Pinnacle advanced were
utilized by the Debtors to pay down a creditor of Federated Heartland, All In Production, LLC, by $1,000,000.”

After Heartland received this payment, according to court documents, it extended the date its remaining debt from Federated was owed, over $2 million, until Mar. 31, 2012.

The $2 million was due back to Pinnacle on Feb. 29, 2012, the maturity date on the Promissory Note.

Federated Sports and Gaming filed for bankruptcy Feb. 28, 2012, the day before Pinnacle’s money was due, preventing All In Productions from taking back control of Heartland Poker Tour’s assets.

Still Trying to Spend Big After Bankruptcy

Court filings show that Federated Sports and Gaming budgets are still bloated in bankruptcy.

A budget submitted by Federated Sports and Gaming to the bankruptcy court proposed that executives use cash collateral from Heartland Poker Tour operations to spend $458,092 in Federated salaries for three months, March 2012 through May 2012.

In other words, while Federated Sports and Gaming had no tournaments scheduled to run during these three months, they attempted to use revenue from a company they acquired, but hadn’t fully paid for, to support lavish Federated executive paychecks.

Unsurprisingly, All In Productions contested this filing and, subsequently, the bankruptcy court approved a significantly reduced budget.

The court agreed with All In Productions petition filed in March 2012 that Federated Sports and Gaming “has little cash, generates no receivables and intends to use Federal Heartland’s cash and the receivables generated by Federated Heartland to fund its business operations.”

Around the same time, Federated Heartland filed an Emergency Motion because employees of the Heartland Poker Tour did not get paid in late February. This money, totaling $42,898.70 for unpaid wages, event labor and expense, was requested during a time when Heartland Poker Tour was executing its 100th live poker tournament.

Federated Heartland, in an attempt to keep its tour operational, submitted a plan to the court showing it needed only $113,493 for March 2012 operations.

Surprisingly, Heartland’s entire monthly operational budget, which included salaries, television production and event set up, was lower than the rejected March 2012 salary and wages request, which would have funded Federated Executive paychecks, of $170,611 that Federated submitted to the bankruptcy judge.

Heartland Poker Tour representatives declined to comment, given the matters of the bankruptcy court.

Blame and Board of Directors Shake Up

As bankruptcy filings details have emerged, some critics have blamed Federated Sports and Gaming’s fall on Jeffery Pollack.

Annie Duke in 2010
In 2005, Pollack was hired by Harrah’s Casino as its Vice President of Marketing and, in that role, he headed the 2005 World Series of Poker. In 2006, he became the Commissioner of the World Series, a post he held until in 2009. He then was hired as executive chairman of the Professional Bull Riders, a post held for about a year. He then went on to form Federated Sports and Gaming with Annie Duke, who served as Executive Vice President and League Commissioner.

“The truth is, he’s (Pollack) been running a bluff on many in the poker community for a long time,” Daniel Negreanu stated in a video blog. “He was booted from the WSOP [as commissioner] but saw a day when legalized online poker was coming and thought he could get his hand in the cookie jar at the absolute right time. He thought, throw together and create a brand and hope to hit a big score. Under this strategy, you just don’t care about having a sustainable business plan.”

It’s been reported the Pollack has used his past poker connections to secure financing for Federated Sports and Gaming. Reports have surfaced that Pinnacle employs a number of ex-Harrah’s executives that Pollack formerly worked with at the World Series of Poker.

“The concept of the pro poker league was a good idea and an idea that could have worked,” said a creditor who spoke to Card Player on a condition of anonymity. “But Epic should have done it on beer budget and, instead, tried to do it on a Dom Perignon budget.”

While bankruptcy documents show Federated Sports and Gaming owing more than $5 million, that number does not include an initial round of private financing that has long since been spent.

According to Chicago Business website, J.B. Pritzker, principal owner of Hyatt Hotels Corporation and TransUnion Corporation, was part of an initial investment group that provided Federated Sports with an initial infusion of $2.5 million in private-equity financing.

At one point, J.B. Pritzker was listed as Director, Board of Directors on Federated Sports + Gaming’s website but it appears he has resigned as his biography has since been removed from the public site.

Countryline LLC, a private equity firm held by parent company The Pritzker Group, is listed as Federated Sports and Gaming largest Debtor’s equity security holder in bankruptcy filings, holding more than 42 percent of Federated Sports and Gaming Debtor equity.

Pritzker was an investor in YouBet, a company former Federated Co-Chief Executive Michael Brodsky ran as Executive Chairman. Brodsky also formerly acted as Managing Partner for the investment arm of Pritzker’s New World Opportunity Partners. Brodsky has also since been removed from Federated Sports and Gaming’s public website.

Court records show that there will be follow up hearings and motions scheduled for later this month.

Cardplayer.

From Daniel Negreanu on 2+2:

Jeffrey and Annie are moving up the Poker Hall of Shame ladder every day. Dirty, scummy, pieces of dung. You can't trust this woman!!! She is the devil incarnate!!! Jeffrey aligned with her because she has no morals whatsoever. Sickens me. I tried to warn everyone, including the guys at 441. I basically told them, "This thing has no shot in hell of working, so make sure you get paid UP FRONT."

Every single person who EVER does business with that witch eventually gets burned and comes to me saying, "You were right, she is pure evil." The list of people who have said those exact words to me is endless.

Howard, you and your disgusting sister have done enough damage to our industry! OUT with you!!!!!

Federated Sports is another one of these Toxic companies that suck the life out of their creditors, employees and business associates..  Federated isn't the first and certainly won't be the last company of this kind to cast a dull shadow over the poker community as a whole...

Steer clear of companies like this... For those that remember the "Worldcom" "Amways" "Bordeaux wines" If things look too good to be true, they usually are...