2009 .. Will "Bad-Beat" survive ?

[bennythedip2]

After spending over a week playing live poker in the big Christmas Festival at Luton a few things started to come to light about sponsorship in poker.
Firstly i found out my good mate 'Jason "Meds" Medley' has left "Bad-Beat" and will be starting his own on-line business soon. Now, was he pushed or did he leave ?...
Well as i found out "Bad-Beat are moving from their London office to the North East and from my understanding 'Dave Connolly' has taken over the running and organising that 'Meds" was doing and also the big man "Mr Smith" has pulled the plug on his sponsorship, obviously his business interests are falling faster than Gorden Brown's popularity .
So how does that leave the players who have relied on the sponsor deal from 'Bad-Beat' ?? My opinion , after talking with another well know player at the festival who is sponsored by 'Bad-Beat", is they should all get ready to find a job ... The game is changing now that the Credit Crunch is starting to bite and unless these players have built their own 'bankroll' the honeymoon will be over in the next year.....
I also had a chat with another known 'face' of the poker world, he has been sponsored by a big bookmaking firm , who when he asked for a better deal was told, "Sorry there is no deal at all "
Now knowing a lot of these players over the years and they were fortunate to get deals, they will have to look long and hard at their life-style and the levels they play at.. I have seen players come and go and new faces take there place and they in turn come and go. When i look back 10 or 15 years there have been so many 'wanna- bees' who win one tournament and suddenly they think they are a proffessional !!! hmmm for about six months
Ultimately, the sponsorship that 'Bad-Beat' have been giving will take a dramatic turn over the coming year, as for the bookmaker's and the likes of Full Tilt and Poker Stars, they will carry on sponsoring but it will be a year for players to check their bankroll and understand the song Freddy Mercury sang....."Nothing Last's Forever".... Good luck guys and a special good luck to my mate "Jason Medley" in his new venture, if he was pushed, well maybe it's for the best in the long turm

Benny

[Tony2005]

And i think a lot of the "so called pros" will be struggling to find sponsorships as firms cut back..

The main reason for this is that the big tv tournements are attracting larger fields which means that the final tables are being made up of usually diffrent players most who havnt been sponsored.

The bigger names who play the organised tv events that are six seater invited entries will still do alright as they are getting the exposure on tv a lot more then the other less well known pros.

The main problem those smaller pros will have is stumping up the buy ins for live events and maybe will will see more of these players going back to their roots of the online game.

Maybe some will have connections that will pay the odd entry but im sure these wil be very few and far between.

As for the cash games....well players will have to drop down a few levels to be able to fund those games and obviously these levels are more competetive and on the whole the play is much looser...

Anyone who thought they can make a living out of online cash games will be in for a shock as im sure numbers will dwindle as funds disappear...

Yes i think your right Benny....maybe the bubble is about to burst....