No LA Poker Classic thread?

[olivert]

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Oliver,
One thing you miss is that certain guys are not out there actively promoting themselves. I sat with Michael Gracz at one of the tourneys and he's a pretty quiet guy who would probably never mention his wins unless someone brought it up. So yeah he might have one of the best records in tournament poker, but he is not out there trupmeting it. Its like that in every sport the quiet humble guys really dont get many endorsements (tim duncan - knowing oliver he'll trot out a list - im just saying relative to other bball superstars.) alan acheived as much as anyone in the first season of the WPT. he did not get any deals, probably because he is not loud or actively out there promoting himself. so you need to lay off this endorsement stuff. As long as the fields are large there will be a small group of people making a very nice income off of tourney poker regardless of endorsementage.

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FYI:

Michael Gracz, The Grinder, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Evelyn Ng, David Williams, Josh Arieh, Antonio Esfandiari, and Jennifer Harman (among others) all share the SAME agent, Brian Balsbaugh, who does business under the name "Poker Royalty".

Having spoken to Brian a couple times in the past 12 months, he can I do agree on this: online poker endorsement deals for players are now taking much longer to get done compared to 2004 and the first half of 2005.

Brian signed The Grinder and Michael Gracz about a year ago during the 2005 WSOP.

The Grinder only recently got his online poker endorsement deal, after the likes of "Blackjack Babe" Erica Schoenberg
and Playboy cover girl Joanna Krupa got their deals.

The Grinder was by far the most marketable tournament poker player from the "Class of 2005", as The Grinder packaged himself in the image of a boxer, complete with swagger, attitude, and a sizable entourage.

Even though The Grinder was a close to being a "total package" as there is, Brian Balsbaugh had to work nearly a year to get an endorsement deal done for The Grinder.

Michael Gracz still doesn't have an endorsement deal yet even though he wants one and Brian Balsbaugh has been trying to get him one in the past 12 months.

Gracz has gotten a couple of TV appearances, first on GSN's Battle of the Ages last July, and soon as a guest commentator on FSN's Poker Dome.

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I also know from talking to a number of sources that many poker BOOK deals have been recinded within the past 6-9 months, due to a combination of saturation and maturing of the poker book market, and declining interest from the buying public for poker books and other poker-related merchandise (which parallelled the TV ratings erosion for TV poker products.)

WPTE's merchandise and brand licensing revenue in the past 2 quarters are down at least 26% compared to the same quarter 12 months ago.