UniversityPokerTour.com and Matti Makkonen

Between FTOPS tournaments this weekend, I got an email from a guy in South Africa asking how much I'd want for this domain name, explaining how poker is blowing up in Johannesberg and he wants to go after the college poker market. He politely explained that the domain would be more valuable for a South African project, since down there they call their colleges "University". I liked this guy. (I don't think I've ever known a South African that I didn't like now that I think about it). I decided to do a little research and get back to him to try to strike a fair price.

Then about an hour later a DIFFERENT guy from Europe emailed saying he was interested in seeing a list of my poker domain names, so I sent him a list. He said the one he was interested in (out of the 800 or so poker domain names) was... drumroll.... wait for it... UniversityPokerTour.com.

Let me explain to you how much of a "coincidence" that is... Out of 4,000 or so domain names, I get MAYBE three inquiries a week. Maybe about a third of those inquiries materialize into an actual offer. And about 70% of the time, that resulting offer is pretty low... Like, "Dude that won't even get me a lapdance during Happy Hour at Little Darlings" low.

But here these guys were not only inquiring about the same name, they were BOTH ready to buy immediately in the $x,xxx range. I figured they were from the same group and just weren't communicating with each other... but they weren't related in any way. So I have no idea what to do. But whatever happens... it's good. :)

I picked up the domain name several years ago because I thought it was such a great obvious business model... a completely free, intercollegiate poker league where students chill and play free poker with each other and earn points to qualify to enter the semi-final round of the University Poker Tour, which obviously would also be free for real pries... all ending in a big tournament tournament televised live by all the major networks where the college poker champion is crowned!!! I know you're asking how can a business model surrounding free poker make money... don't worry about it. I believe that in the future ALL poker will be played without money. I still kind of have a dream of maybe revisiting the project down the line. Free poker leagues, bar poker, university poker clubs... I think that's where poker is headed.

Anyway, since I picked it up, several other extensions have been bought and developed. UniversityPokerTour.net is a developed bar league in Tennessee, for example. ItalianUPT.com is the site for the "Italian University Poker Tour". The domain is taken in eight extensions, including UniversityPokerTour.co.uk (england), UniversityPoker.ca(canada), and UniversityPokerTour.nl (netherlands). Sidenote, it's still available for reg fee in a lot of good extensions, if you were so inclined to invest a few bucks into UniversityPokerTour.me, for example, or UniversityPokerTour.ws. It's not like .com is the only extension out there! But it is king.

Back to the two buyers. They both wanted to talk on the phone. I actually have a self-diagnosed social anxiety disorder called Telephonophobia (i.e. the fear of phones... not the phone itself, but communicating on the phone). Anyone who knows me knows that I rarely talk on the phone. I dread chatting on the phone. I have enough experience talking with people that I don't think it comes off when I'm actually on the phone... I try to act comfortable and natural. But I feel it. Which is why I could kiss the dude who invented text messaging.


So I talked to each of them over MSN instead... probably better anyway since they're both foreign. I let them both know that there was another party interested in the domain name and that I had a large collection of alternate domains I'd sell for a fraction of what they were offering for UniversityPokerTour. But they were both very insistent on getting this particular name. So I decided the best course of action is to put it up for auction at eBay.

Here's my perfect scenario: I'll start the auction this week and some VP of Marketing from PokerStars or FullTiltPoker will take notice and decide it's worth as much as it takes to acquire the domain. Meanwhile, a Michelob Ultra heavy would decide the same thing, while Steve Lipscomb finalizes the new WPT press release announcing the launch of "The University Poker Tour" after just buying UPT.com for $50k. They all get in a pissing contest and raise the price up to a modest six figures... then Yahoo Poker and Myspace poker get involved and the high-bid stands for two days at $1 million dollars. Then seconds before it sells, GoldenPalace.com comes in using their auction sniper and buys the domain for a cool 8 figures as a huge publicity stunt (along with their check would be a little apologetic note from GP owners David Leb and Jack Strollsaying "sorry" for screwing me and my little brother over back during the PokerSpot days and encouraging me to "do something positive with the $69 million").

Here's a more likely scenario: I'll start the domain name auction this week, spend a half-day promoting the hell out of it, and watch slightly disappointed as it gets exactly two bids. Whatevs. I've learned to appreciate any domain sale over a grand these days and to especially appreciate the "Blue Sky" sales... those are the sales that just fall into your lap from heaven without any real work from you where the customer comes to you. And it'll be nice to see the domain go to actual use instead of wasting away on my registrar's parking page.

Anyway, that's about all I've got to say about that. Barring any unforeseen developments, I'm expecting to start the auction for UniversityPokerTour.com later this week. I'll make sure that it doesn't end before Thanksgiving to give everyone out there plenty of time to get involved and bid against each other. It'll definitely be nice to get a little cashflow in to support my domaining habit and to fund development of some of the domains I'm working on. If you're interested in making a bid or checking out the auction, just type the domain in and I'll have it setup to go straight to the eBay auction. Or email me and I'll make sure you're notified when it starts. Also, if you have a relationship with a potential end-user for the domain, please let them know that it's for sale.

Now it's time to get this all out of my head and focus on winning this FTOPs main event! Playing under "Dutchalicious" if you feel like watching. After my "chat abuse" and subsequent banning for life from Poker Stars, I turn off all chat on the cardrooms... so don't think I'm rude if you try to give a shoutout and I don't respond.

The Scoop w/ Scott Fischman

My buddy and fellow crewmate Scott Fischman, fresh off his final table in London at the WSOP-Europe, appeared on Adam Schoenfeld's and Diego Cordovez's show The Scoop. It's a good interview. I think my favorite line is when he's talking about the differences between playing cash games and poker tournaments. "Everyday when I wake up, I know I'm going to lose." So true. Anyway, take a look at the interview. He said some nice things about me, which I really appreciated.

ProPokerSchool.com

One of my fellow Crew members, Brett "Gank" Jungblut, setup a site some time ago called Pro Poker School. Now there are a lot of online poker training sites, many of them very good... sites like PokerXFactor.com, ChipRunners.com, RealPokerTraining.com, etc. ProPokerSchool.com is different then all of them, however, because it is 100% free.

Let me repeat that. You can go to Gank's online poker school and get poker lessons from a World Series of Poker bracelet winner and it won't cost you a dime. This is an incredible deal. Brett is one of the players which I credit for improving my game the most. He makes some of the most creative plays I've ever come across in poker.

As an example, a few years ago when the Crew was just starting out, Gank, my little brother Bobby, and myself decided to play a little three-man Limit Omaha/8 tournament. O8 is Gank's best game... I had played my fair share of it as a prop in San Jose... but Bobby had never played the game before and really didn't have much of an idea of what he was doing.

A hand came down where by the river, I had a very weak high hand and the fourth nut low. The board read something like 887QA. I had been drawing to the nut low with A25x, and made Bobby had been raising the whole time like he had flopped the nut fullhouse. On the river, Gank checked, Bobby bet like he'd been doing every street, and I called hoping to salvage half the pot. Then Gank check-raised. Bobby called. I was disgusted, as I realized that I was getting squeezed. Brett must have been playing a 23 and hit his nut low. So I shook my head and folded my 25.

But then when Gank turned over his hand, he had absolutely nothing and Bobby sooped the pot with something like a pair of Kings. I couldn't believe it! "Why the hell would you raise?!?" At first I thought it was the dumbest play I'd seen...

But then I felt schooled as Brett started laughing his head off while Bobby scooped the chips. I realized what had happened. Brett knew that I was going to be getting half the pot with my low and he decided that he would rather see the whole pot go to Bobby, since he had never played O8 and Brett correctly figured that it would be easier to get the chips back from him than from me. It was still to this day one of the more advanced plays I've seen at the table... pushing out a better player to make sure a weaker player wins the pot.

A year later, Brett Jungblut would prove to the rest of the world what I already knew... that he was a world-class poker player and one of the best Omaha Hi-low players around. He proved it by winning the $5,000 Omaha/8 Championship at the WSOP. It was one of the toughest tables I'd ever seen a WSOP final table, filled out by the likes of Erick Lindgren, Huck Seed, Miami John, Thor Hansen, Minh Nguyen, Brent Carter, Mike Wattel and Todd Brunson. There wasn't a single weak spot at that final table. And Brett emerged victorious.

Go visit ProPokerSchool.com today and improve your poker game for free.