Poker Pros Going Wild Over Pokemon Go

(Photo: Amazonaws.com)

It seems that everyone is going wild over Pokemon Go these days. The interactive smartphone game has captured the imagination of the world with the use of the real world and virtual character collection creating an immersive game that actually gets players moving rather than sitting at a computer screen.

In order to collect characters you have to move to real locations to reach the pokemon after you are alerted to it’s presence on a virtual map. Once captured you can train train them and increase their value and as with many collection games, the collection element and the will of players to collect the more rare virtual characters quickly becomes addictive. When I saw that Nintendo’s value of a company increased by $9 billion upon the release of Pokemon Go I really began to sit up and take notice.

Some people take the game so seriously they make big mistakes, like the family who hit the news this week from the USA where two parents are facing child endangerment charges after leaving their child at home in 30C heat to head into the world and play the game.

The phenomenon of Pokemon has not escaped the poker world Well-known Poker presenter Tatjana Pasalic, who tweets at her account @Tattytats, took to Twitter to request a tip off from any high stakes player plying their trade in the Amazon Room in the hope she could acquire any rare pokemon residing in there awaiting capture.

Any rare @Pokemon in the Amazon room? Holler at your girl! #PokemonGo

— Tatjana Pasalic (@Tattytats) July 8, 2016

Tatjana’s request for help did not fall on deaf ears. High stakes poker pro Adam Levy, best known for his 12th place finish in the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event and with $2.5 million in lifetime tournament earnings, tweeted back telling Tatjana he was downloading the app as he tweeted at her and would let her know.

@Tattytats@Pokemon downloading right now. We shall see 🙏

— Adam Levy (@Roothlus) July 8, 2016

Presumably if there was any rare pokemon in the amazon room that evening they were quickly mopped up by Tatjana and/or Adam as no further tweets were exchanged. They probably discussed pokemon strategy via direct message. What a bunch of spoilsports! It’s quite a thought to think of the high stakes poker action going on in the amazon room whilst players may at the same time carefully move into position to capture a random pokemon lurking nearby, then return to contest huge pots.

Perhaps one of the reasons Tatjana asked the Amazon room about any rare pokemons is because where there is limited access to locations, rare pokemons can sit uncollected for longer. There has been some controversy over all areas in the world being used for the game and there is some legal moves in some countries to give properties the option to opt out of the game. There have been reports of people being seen climbing over fences into neighbours gardens to collect pokemons, which had me shaking my head in disbelief. In the story I read the homeowner was more upset about losing the pokemon than someone infiltrating their garden.

Tatjana posted another tweet a few days later that showed she remains a big fan of Pokemon Go. Lance_Bradley had tweeted a photo of a poker player with a particularly eccentric hairstyle and she asked:

Which room is this @Pokemon in? I am on my way. https://t.co/RVVsxE93VS

— Tatjana Pasalic (@Tattytats) July 11, 2016

It is unclear if the gentleman in question would have objected to being “collected” by Tatjana. I personally would like to take this opportunity in offering myself as a valuable and rare pokemon for her collection!

The whole pokemon phenomenon is surreal, but with over 5% of smartphone users downloading the app on the very first week and many more since then, it is a reality of numbers that many poker pros and serious poker players are playing pokemon these days. So if you are in a casino and you spot a pokemon, move quickly because the poker(mon) sharks will be lurking for more than just your chips.