Facetime Poker? Apparition of Daniel Negreanu playing on non-PokerStars video avatar site
Gah, another juicy newsbriefable thingy to speculate wildly on with little information or context when we all could just make a phone call or send an email to find out what’s up) … yet no Poker Beat to break it down. 🙁
Anyhow, check it out and decide with minimal information for yourself … Daniel Negreanu, “caught” on webcam via screencap … playing on a site that isn’t PokerStars?
It’s something new called PokerView — which looks like just about any other online poker site except instead of avatars you have webcam video. Very tell-revealing you might think in straight-up play. And Negreanu obviously isn’t making any effort to hide his identity any more than he’s actively trying to promote this new endeavor.
So many stories potentially in play here. Is Negreanu going the way of Hellmuth, Duke, Raymer, and Maven … seeking a new poker home? Does this new site have any connection to PokerStars (the biggest online poker company in the world, save for maybe Zynga)? Could this technology be a major step forward in TOS security, giving a real-time glimpse of who’s really playing and what else might be going on in their seat. Could you mix it with Rush Poker to create online poker’s version of chat roulette? And with that in mind, serious question … how long before people start showing their junk and contend it’s merely a strategic maneuver if your schlong got the other guy to fold?
ALT HED: Show Me Your Nuts
(Thanks, DL, for the tip!) (Shame on you, DL, for trying to play me a chump!)
CONFIRMED: Not a real Daniel Negreanu endeavor.
Jessica Welman says:
February 12th, 2011 at 3:05am
Considering the girl at the bottom of the screen is folding while simultaneously smoking a cigarette with one hand and taking a drink of her beverage with the other at the :33 mark, I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that this has been doctored slightly.
Dan Michalski says:
February 12th, 2011 at 3:29am
That’s why I called it an “apparition”, uh-duh! you know, miracle to have negreanu appear in a play-money game (beta-test?) on some site we haven’t heard of before … ?
ok, yeah, i poked around. looks like i kinda-sorta fell for a wannabe viral semi-hoax. oh well, good on them for making something that seemed more interesting than the latest whatever video to come over the poker transom. i hope all can tell from my various disclaimers and non-committal language that i didn’t believe it 100 percent. But it’s not completely unrealistic either … even though Daniel is telling me on twitter that it’s “absurd”.
Rakewell says:
February 12th, 2011 at 6:44am
Another site advertised the same concept four years ago–they would even give you a free webcam when you signed up. They then apparently went belly-up before even launching. See: http://pokergrump.blogspot.com/2008/07/what-ever-happened-to.html
Andrew says:
February 12th, 2011 at 7:05am
I think the best part is nobody reacts when the cards are turned up after the all-in.
Just keep on staring straight ahead….nothings happening here.
sara says:
February 12th, 2011 at 7:38am
I know that picture its from an interview he did during the WSOOP. It was with PokerTube called 50 minutes with Daniel negreanu, look it up.
gamingcounsel says:
February 12th, 2011 at 9:40am
Not just absurd, Dan: *beyond* absurd.
So not ridiculously unreasonable or unsound but, you know, beyond that, somehow.
JoeAdams says:
February 14th, 2011 at 4:43pm
Wow, that’s kinda interesting! Who knows one day I might encounter Ben Affleck or Brad Pitt playing in an online casino. Lol.