The Barstool Poker Tour Would Be A Huge Success
In case you missed it, yesterday the Cracking Aces fellas went on the Dave Portnoy show on the heels of our week out at the WSOP in Vegas and pitched Dave the idea of a Barstool Poker Tour. We didn't get into specifics, but we know a poker tour sort of like the Barstool Golf Classic would be a success. A different casino every month, a few prelim events, and then a main event with a fair price point and a big guarantee. We would make it fun- Barstool personalities would be bounties, the rake wouldn't be excessive, and it would be a full Barstool experience. For example- Foreplay could play in the tournament and have a live show the night before. The poker tournaments would fill the Penn hotel rooms, get people gambling in the pits, and have promotions for the sports book. It makes almost too much sense!
It stinks Dave isn't on board. But hopefully that won't matter. Every other casino company sees the value in poker. To Dave's point, no, poker rake isn't a HUGE money maker. But there's a reason the WSOP fields this year were breaking records. All the midwest poker tours are smashing guarantees. People simply want to play live poker again. It's glorious. And I hope so much we are a part of it.
I see the criticism about me on Twitter. I get it, I can rub people the wrong way. Shit, imagine living with my brain! I rub ME the wrong way sometimes too! But this is one thing I have never been so sure of. If we build it, they will come. The Barstool Poker Open (shit, we can call it the Dave Portnoy Is God Poker Classic for all I care) would crush. We would be able to sell merch, fill the hotels, and introduce new markets to the Barstool/Penn brands. And if things go well, we can run a bigger tournament at M in Vegas around WSOP time. Fun fact- the M used to run a "secret" tournament every year around the Main Event time. We could bring that back.
I hope Davey P reconsiders. We have the casinos, we have the infrastructure, we have the poker boom happening with or without us. I want Barstool to be a part of it, so bad. I want to *Mintzy voice* bring it to the people. Pipe dreams, but hopefully a future reality.
Also shout out to DNegs for the huge shout out in his Vlog. What a guy.
Not a bad guy to have on your side imo.
In the mean time, we talked about this, we debriefed from the WSOP, Jake went through some of Smitty's hand histories, and we talked about the "Kessler drama" on this week's episode of Cracking Aces.