A look at poker sponsorships, the good and the bad

Not too long ago -in a time before the terms Hole-Card Cam, Online Qualifier, and Moneymaker were part of the poker vernacular-poker players yearned for sponsorships, and the idea of businesses sponsoring players and tournaments was considered a way to save the game. Well, we are now in the era of sponsorship, but it just might be the case that the old saying of ‘be careful what you wish for’ applies all too fittingly.

Before Sponsorships

Before sponsorships there were very few successful tournament poker players; the buy-ins, travelling expenses, and small number of tournaments prevented the majority of players from even eeking out a living playing tournaments -the majority of professional poker players plied their trade at cash game tables.

Tournaments were more of a lottery -albeit a lottery with pretty reasonable odds for top players-where you could make a really big score if you caught a few cards, and won a few coin flips. Now keep in mind that in this era a $1 million tournament was a HUGE score! You’re talking about a poker economy where $75/$150 limit was a fairly high-limit game, not like today’s $1,000/$2,000 Limit, or $200/$400 No Limit games.

After Sponsorships

In the current poker climate we have set up a system where winning the tournament lottery almost assures you of being a wildly successful tournament player. How is that possible? Well, if you win that first big tournament you typically land a sponsorship deal where an online poker site will pay your buy-in and possibly travel costs, so in effect sponsored tournament players are on a freeroll. This allows them to enter more and more tournaments with little concern over the monetary expenses, which drastically increases their odds of winning a second or third title -which prolongs their sponsorship deal.

The Effect on Poker

I’m sure you’re asking why I think this is bad for poker. The reason it’s bad for poker is that it creates a sort of class warfare in poker, where the rich get richer, and the mid-level players (who were on the losing side of the 99 vs. AK all-in race in that tournament that propelled another player to a sponsorship deal) suffer the consequences.

Now I’m not rallying for the mid-level player; my problem is that the rich are a little too rich now -in fact they really don’t even need to play poker anymore-and this is no more evident than in the ridiculous bets they make because the six-figure paydays for winning a tournament are meaningless to them.