The Poker Journalist

(Photo: Adweek.com)

You might be wondering why on earth a poker journalist thinks you’ll be interested in what a poker journalist has to say about his own profession? Just give me the news, well-written features about interesting people and the occasional crazy story about gambling and poker gone wrong – or occasionally right!

Well, excuse me for one small article if you will, because this is important – and here’s why…

(Photo: Pokerarena.cz)

One of my ‘colleagues’ in the industry, Marty Derbyshire from PokerNews, overstepped the mark as a writer. He did the inexcusable and bit the very hand that was feeding him by writing a contentious opinion piece, stating:

"Poker is a game, not a job, and it's certainly not a profession."

Writing that: ' Most of those who choose to make a career out of something the rest of the working world does on evenings and weekends as a recreational pursuit aren't joining any kind of professional ranks. They are dropping out of society and choosing to live on the fringes,’ wasn’t the most sensitive of things he could have penned.

Although he mentioned a few decent souls, those ‘exceptionally skilled or lucky few who rise to tremendous success, develop a fan following and become celebrities, endorse poker-related businesses or accept sponsorships and a responsibility to promote the game can make a career out of it,’ he was scathing in his overall attitude to poker as a profession.

But he then dug himself into a huge hole by saying:

"The rest of the professional poker playing community is simply gambling for a living. They make few, if any, contribution to society. For the most part, these are relatively smart people who choose greed, laziness, and self-delusion as their path. They are otherwise capable of doing something a little more meaningful with their lives."

Pretty brutal stuff, particularly as his PokerNews bosses rely on these very pros for much of their content, be it strategy articles, interviews or just the general good-will which keeps the news flowing, the clicks clicking and the money coming in – but they were nowhere to be found when my fellow journalist ‘went to print’ with his attack.

Derbyshire apologised, eventually, but with a back-handed swipe at the end which undid most of his pleading:

"I could go on about how I’m being treated unfairly, that this is an overreaction, that the positive nature of the overwhelming majority of my work in poker is being ignored and that the gang-up mentality employed by many people in this case was as bad as anything I ever wrote. Instead, I will simply say goodbye, and good luck."

Many vilified him, others defended him as simply being honest, but the journalist himself admitted that he had:

"… written some hurtful and inflammatory things about poker players and the professional poker playing community. For that I am truly sorry. It's no excuse, but I let my desire to drive traffic, increase hits and rise to relevance as a columnist cloud my judgement, ability to empathize and understand how others may perceive my words."

OK, why am I sharing this with you all? Because there but for the grace of whoever go I? Well, no.

It’s important for the reader, the viewer, the poker player who needs or wants to read about the game and its characters and stories and high points and low to realise that what we – what I - do, is a profession. A generally skilled one, but like poker players themselves these skills vary.

I have a degree in journalism and a fair bit of writing and editing experience. I have studied media ethics among many other things and understand also how the ‘game’ is played. I am an employee, with the same restrictions and freedoms which any other employee has. If I don’t like them, I can leave my job. Find a new one, a new profession even! Just like the poker player who can no longer accept his position in the game.

However, I am fortunate. Ostensibly freelance, I cover a wide range of poker and poker-related subjects almost exclusively for PokerTube. My bosses are great, my colleagues – though I’ve never met them in real-life yet! – are also fantastic. We have combined goals and certain things we just HAVE to do as a business, but very few of them involve slicing deep wounds into the people we are reporting on unless they REALLY deserve it.

Yes, I have written some pieces in haste or when grumpy (or after several bad beats on the tables!) which were quite rightly answered with an editorial “behave yourself Andy!”

Derbyshire took it upon himself to hurt poker players generally – even if ‘hurt’ seems like a harsh word for what were, well, just words! The point is, he did it and tried to defend himself. His editors somehow allowed it to happen and then let him be hoist by his own petard.

It was, all round, a ‘very poor show’ – but one which I will personally keep in mind as I continue writing for PokerTube and its loyal readers - of whom there are many. We have always sought to be ‘different’ from the average poker site, and our news, views and features section works along those lines also.

We rarely do ‘chip-count reporting’ as it’s boring to do and not hugely interesting to follow. You can get that elsewhere and we don’t mind at all.

We don’t do the ‘close relationship with the biggest pros’ thing either. If Negreanu or Hellmuth or Holz or Polk are out of order we’d like to be able to tell you why and how.

What we do is try to have excellently-written and highly-interesting poker news and features.

What we also do is show loyalty to those affiliates and partners who work with us to produce a good poker scene and even better deals – for us and you and them.

PokerTube is - and I’ll pass this by my editors first just to make sure I don’t offend them ;) – a site which caters for the poker enthusiast, the player who loves the game and all it entails, the player who wants to be entertained and informed in equal measure.

And if we make a mistake – that means me or my editor or my colleagues – it’s a joint effort for which we all accept responsibility – and then work to fix it and get on with what we do best.

Thanks for reading this far and as always feedback and constructive criticism are ALWAYS welcome.