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Unibet knows how to do live poker
My first Unibet Open was in Citywest in Dublin in 2011. Looking back years later, my abiding memory was that it was the first time I played in a tournament where I felt like a foreigner in my own country. Exactly how much the collapse of the Celtic Tiger and subsequent austerity affected the Irish poker economy was made clear that there was a tournament in Ireland that got less than a dozen locals to buy in.
Nevertheless, it was a very fun weekend. It turns out feeling like a foreigner in your own land doesn’t have to be a bad thing, if the atmosphere among the visitors is as friendly as it was at the event.
Fast forward five years and I’m in Bucharest at the biggest ever Unibet Open. The first thing that stood out was the friendliness I’d seen in Dublin was still there in abundance. In the intervening five years I’d grown accustomed to less friendly and more testy atmospheric conditions surrounding live poker, so this felt like a refreshing return to the good old days of live poker.
I was also surprised how many faces I recognized from Dublin: Unibet had clearly done a better job retaining players than other sites and operators. After shooting the breeze with some of the Unibet staff, it was easy to see why.
ethos and culture of the company was geared towards the recreational poker experience
The whole ethos and culture of the company was geared towards the recreational poker experience. This is something that ties in with my view of how poker should be. It should be fun for the so-called fun players: if not, what’s the point? Live poker, in particular, shouldn’t be 9 robots sitting at a table wearing hoodies, shades, and Beats grinding GTO ranges.
Unibet clearly recognized this, which is why I was delighted to announce after the event that I would be representing them as a brand ambassador alongside my good friends Ian Simpson and David Lappin starting at the following Unibet Open in London.
All good things
For eight and a half years, “The Chip Race” has been incredibly fortunate to be sponsored by a company that respected our vision for the show and always had our backs. Unibet Poker is a great poker site that cares about its players and the health of the game. It has been an honor to partner with them, represent their brand, and amplify their message.
June 1, our partnership with Unibet Poker will come to an end
On June 1, our partnership with Unibet Poker will come to an end and we would like to take this opportunity to thank the people who helped us down the years, in particular David Pomroy, Kris Bergvall, Kat Arnsby, Nataly Sopacuaperu, Kasia Scanlon, Simon Steedman, Andy Paton, Stubbe Buchwald, and Sebastian Rebhan.
Between now and then, we will put out three more episodes of “The Chip Race,” two strategy videos, and our 100th episode of The Lock-In from The Irish Open. We will try to make them all bangers.
Being an ambassador
I learned how to play poker in May 2007. In the 18 years since, I have been an ambassador for three different online poker sites for almost 13 of those years. I’ve also been an ambassador for other brands for a total of nine years, making me one of the most sponsored players in the game, so if this turns out to be my last sponsorship, well, I’ve had a good run.
Of course, if anyone else out there thinks I fit what they’re looking for in an ambassador, I’m more than happy to entertain the possibility. It has been a pleasure to work alongside David in what was his first sponsorship deal, and in an ideal world, that partnership continues. If not, I will say that David has grown into the role to become a tremendous ambassador.
It has been an honor and a privilege for both of us to represent Unibet as ambassadors for more than eight years, and I’d like to thank all the great people we worked with and everyone who supported us.
Is this the end for “The Chip Race”?
Maybe. David and I are both very busy men, and as much as the podcast is a labor of love for both of us, we can’t justify investing the considerable amount of time we do in making it without a sponsor. The demands on David’s time are particularly heavy, as in addition to hosting the show, he is also our sound engineer and chief researcher, publicist, and script writer.
We are open to finding a new sponsor or sponsors to enable us to continue past June. We have established ourselves as a leading global poker podcast, with a big audience worldwide, which we hope makes us attractive to potential new sponsors.
connected us to thousands upon thousands of wonderful enthusiasts worldwide
We will both be more than a little sad if this does turn out to be the end of the show, but we know all good things must come to an end, and there’s something to be said for going out on a high. We would leave behind a body of work we both feel very proud of, that connected us to thousands upon thousands of wonderful enthusiasts worldwide.
A few people have asked if or assumed that we must have a new sponsor lined up given our public announcement, but I swear this is not the case. A few have reached out to express interest, but nothing is guaranteed, so watch this space.
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