It’s a fascinating tale, I swear, how the WSOP and their new mobile online poker app won over my free-time play … and actually got me to pony up cash for playable chips — a conversion the game-greats at Zynga Texas Hold’em could never achieve with me. (Though Scramble with Friends did get a few of my bucks once.)
Zynga Poker, apparently recognizing a decrease in my “Texas Hold’em” play, buzzes me mid-Omaha in a failed effort to win me back to their handheld digital tables.
The story gets even better when you look into the lawsuit between Zynga and WSOP app-maker Electronic Arts … particularly as Zynga gets ready to do battle on Facebook for real-money gambling in partnership with BwinParty.
I knew early on that Zynga was gonna be kinda a friggin’ big deal, with plans to get even bigger. While just about every other online poker entity has struggled with receding revenues of late, Zynga has seen theirs take off. But how? You don’t even play for real money there (yet) …
In an effort to better understand the secret to Zynga’s success, I went to the Texas Hold’em Poker Facebook fan page for preliminary research, and omg, here’s what I found:
Zynga Poker fans: It’s a good bet that the majority of commenters and likers here aren’t familiar with the phrase “don’t tap the aquarium”.
Yeow. Is this what poker has been missing all along? Power Hours and Free Kitties!?!
So simple, so brilliant … how did PokerStars or Full Tilt not think of it? Forget rakeback, black cards, rush poker, final-table patches, re-entry and cashout tournaments … just give away a few cartoon images and let the people play! And that’s when they rebuy?
OK, maybe I don’t have the Zynga equation down exactly yet, but that’s some of what I’ll be looking into as Zynga’s inaugural PokerCon comes to Las Vegas, March 18-19, at the Palms. I’ll be part of a team covering Zynga PokerCon with Michele Lewis and BJ Nemeth.
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