As more and more online players gain live success and fame they’ll likely encounter the business side of poker. Unfortunately, the sponsorship game can be an awkward and complicated social shoot out with many potential pit falls. Having spent the last several months on the live circuit and interacting with many people on the business side of poker I’d like to use that experience to drop some knowledge on those for whom this will soon be an issue. I imagine a lot of people are expecting an entirely sarcastic and subversive post, and there will be plenty of that, but I’d also like to seriously talk about what I’ve ‘seen in this scene’ and how to use it. If you have half a brain you should be able to tell the two apart.

Do: Win a televised major donkament. Obviously right? Clearly this is easier said than done, but it is the fastest and most direct route to sponsorship. It should be noted however, that these days outside of winning the WSOP ME there is no tournament which garners enough attention in order for your deal to be automatic. In fact, the past two WSOP ME champions have had their sponsorships fall through. Jamie Gold lost his deal with Bodog by being Jamie Gold and Jerry Yang was not signed on to Full Tilt (whose brand he wore at the final table) as a result of he and his family feeling he should no longer gamble his own money on buy ins and Full Tilt not being willing to accommodate such a large investment at the time of his win (according to his agent anyway.)

Don’t: Be white and North American. The poker market is completely saturated with white North Americans and the North American market has the least potential for growth, especially with the current economy. I’ve also been told that ratings for poker TV in North America have been declining (take a look at how many WSOP events ESPN opted to film this year) so the need for further sponsored players to represent this market is at an all time low. That’s not to say attaining a deal being a white North American is impossible, it’s just that it requires much larger results than a European, Latin American, or Asian counterpart. Being North American and nonwhite can be advantageous, especially if your ethnicity is that of a country where poker has been recently introduced and there are no locals that have developed skills in the game worth sponsoring. This applies much more so to Latin America and Asia than Europe currently but as an Asian you face the difficulty that you are not easily promoted in countries outside your own ethnicity due to the ‘blood culture’ mentality that exists in many countries in the region.

Do: Be an attractive girl. Or even semi attractive. Or even barely sorta kinda maybe in dim lighting and were I 12 drinks into the night attractive. Even after five years of popularity the game is still fairly devoid of females who both play well and are attractive, resulting in the sponsoring of many female players who have essentially no clue about the game but whose attractiveness still makes them a much better option than the vast majority of male players. The only problem for females is that this is a male dominated industry that is quite comfortable with casual chauvinism and those girls who truly can play the game well (hi Celina and Annette!) will be assumed to have gained their popularity unfairly or through less than reputable means from some of their peers.

Do: Start a blog. The poker sites want to see you promote yourself and create your own fan club. The poker sites are mostly happy with any form of self promotion as long as it’s not disruptive, and starting a blog is the kind of self promotion you can engage in without feeling like you’re selling your soul. As I’ve found personally it can also be very cathartic at the end of a stressful day of poker and allow you an appropriate forum for which to spread hate on those you feel have earned your scorn. Warning, if you have the audacity to put your true thoughts and feelings in your blog you run the risk of being publicly crucified a la David Benefield. In general, keeping it too real in a blog runs the risk of being hated on by people who have no idea of what their talking about.

Do: Go play a ton of live poker. For the most part sites don’t really care about online accomplishments unless you have incredibly sick Menloesque results or consistently play nose bleed games and win. This is because most online players appeal is to other online players, and the sites don’t need to recruit the business of those they already have. Also, few people in the live arena are impressed by online results, irrelevant to their consistency or scale. Most will assume you are in procession of a ‘lucky account’ or these days, a superuser. They will tell you that your online results don’t prove anything because all anyone does online is call and give you bad beats, and were you to play live the live players would see all your tells and own your soul in ways that would make the devil reconsider is soul owning policies.

Don’t: Shoot your mouth off about the quality of the product of the online company you are employed by a la Roy Winston or Bond18. It won’t make you friends and your self righteousness is not welcome.

Do: Feel free to have loose morals. Sorel Mizzi had a highly public cheating scandal and has a considerable Betfair sponsorship. Brian Townsend and Matthew Vengrin have both encountered cheating scandals (one validated, one quelled) and both maintain Full Tilt sponsorship. Pokerstars sponsored player Ivan Tan once remarked to me over dinner, in front of Pokerstars staff, “Yea you could play on Celina’s account all the time and nobody would have any idea it’s you!” in 100% seriousness. Having quality ethics makes you a liability and is a great way to be left out of the cold despite doing everything else right, a la Shane Schleger.

Don’t: Suck up to those who are in control of sponsorships or other sponsored players in hopes of currying favor. These people get dozens of emails a week with hilariously absurd content describing why the sender is worthy of sponsorship. When they enter poker rooms they are consistently approached by clueless hustlers who feel they have something to offer and must politely decline while retardation is being spewed directly at their brains. For these people, every interaction with someone they don’t know well must be greeted with the suspicion of a potential conversational angle shoot, and kissing ass makes you look like you may be doing just that. Just be yourself and talk to them like you would anyone else. If you have actual business dealings your real personality is going to shine through eventually, so you might as well be real from the start.

Don’t: Make any drug use highly public or notorious. Yes I know Matusow has a reputation/arrest record as a wacky crack head but it’s okay because he got famous in 2004. Overall the sites are extremely averse to being associated with any form of drug use, and that includes every online players favorite, marijuana. The sites already have to fight off anti gambling legislation, and they certainly don’t want to couple that with being seen as encouraging drug use or being comfortable associating with drug users. When expanding to other markets the sites attempt to present themselves as more or less wholesome entertainment so having a team full of addicts isn’t on their sponsorship agenda. It’s still okay to take drugs (not that you would have ever stopped) you just need to shut up about it if you want to do business.

Don’t: Waste your time on the major sites if you’re under 21. They don’t want to be seen as promoting ‘under age gambling’ in the U.S. so they’re not going to sponsor you (yes I know Stinger88 got sponsored at age 20 and I’m still amazed by it.) European sites may be more open to the idea, though I’m not sure as I have far less experience and information pertaining to them. I’ve talked to many younger players about this issue and what often happens when they make a televised final table is a site asks them to wear a patch and often offer a buy in or package to a future tournament as compensation, which is fine if that’s what you feel it’s worth. However, they may also ask you to wear the patch during interviews and media events by making claims that when you turn 21 you will be in line for a sponsorship. DON’T FALL FOR THIS HANDSHAKE/VERBAL SHIT. Nothing is real in the business world until it’s in paper, and there are numerous players who have had this not come to fruition as a result of failing at this aspect. Which brings us to the next point…

Don’t: Ever wear a fucking patch/brand unless you’re being compensated and have it in writing. This applies to poker sites and anyone else who asks you to wear something for them. Either get the money in your hand before you put that shit on or have the arrangement in paper in terms you understand. Don’t wear things for free trying to create good favor. Get paid for what you have to offer. If you have difficulty being a dick about this sort of thing get yourself an agent and get a competent one who you trust, which again brings us to the next point…

Maybe: Get an agent. Whether having an agent is right for you or not depends on a number of things. If you’re not good at being stern about what you want, having an agent may very well be right for you. If you’re not sure what you have to offer is worth and have minimal experience in these kinds of situations an agent may be right for you. When it comes to doing a one time deal for something like wearing a patch at the final table of a result having an agent is clearly less relevant so long as you know what things are worth. However, many agents may tell you that the only way to get a patch deal for a certain televised table is to go through them. I’m not quite sure about the validity of this, but my instinct is that their being lying pieces of shit, but who knows? If anyone has stories or methods about going around agents for one time deals with sites for televised stuff please post that information in this thread. There are some very good and reputable agents out there, and the best to find out whose best for you is to talk to friends who’ve been through this experience and talk to numerous agents and feel them out.

Don’t: Feel entitled. You’re not, nobody is anymore. If WSOP ME champions aren’t getting deals, then what the hell have you done that you think is so important and sponsorship worthy? Sites don’t want to work with ego maniacs and divas that make absurd demands and act like they’re more than a guy/girl who plays a fucking card game for a living. Online players as a whole have trouble transitioning to the live arena socially because we tend to carry an “I know better than you” attitude about the game (author is guilty as charged.) Whether you do know better about this game or not is irrelevant, and your knowledge won’t impress people in the business world. They want to see a positive and outgoing attitude and a willingness to treat random players with respect and enthusiasm, not elitism and condescension.

Don’t: Berate, whine, complain, or lose your temper. It looks immature and ridiculous and doesn’t exactly make you marketable. Sure there are exceptions like Hellmuth whose entire shtick is to blow up at people (authenticity debatable) but overall this kind of behavior is a great way to sabotage your sponsorship potential. If the game stresses you out a ton and you feel yourself about to blow up walk away from the table, go somewhere more private like outside or the bathroom and freak out on a wall Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire style if you really have to. That or grow up.

Don’t: House edge gamble heavily or be a broke ass. The sites want to avoid the image that poker is ‘gambling’ in the scary degenerate sense of the word. Poker is a skill game which happens to have some recreational wagering involved! If it’s well known that you’re constantly in the pit or often broke it tends to reflect poorly on the industry as a whole. Note; there are exceptions to the pit rule for a few certain ‘super ballas’, such as Phil Ivey, whose gambling of absurd sums only grows his legend.

Do: Join a training site. As I said before, the sites like anything you do that serves as self promotion in a healthy/reasonable way. Joining a training site is a great way to grow your profile while giving back to the community (and collect a paycheck!) If talking about and teaching poker is the kind of thing you’re into then hooking up with a training site is the savvy thing to do, especially since some of them have a solid working relationship with the poker sites themselves.

Do: Drop all the shit and play the game. It totally amazes me that a post like this can actually be relevant and useful. When people talk to me about what how their trying to grab a sponsorship deal I just want to shout at them “WHY DON’T YOU JUST PLAY THE FUCKING GAME AS WELL AS YOU KNOW HOW AND CUT THE SHIT?!” Anybody play cause they enjoy it anymore?

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