Rizen & JohnnyBax Sell-Out to UB
Two major announcements came from Ultimate Bet this week; they have signed two of the best online poker players: Cliff ‘JohnnyBax’ Josephy and Eric ‘Rizen’ Lynch. These announcements were most likely done to divert attention from the recent confirmation that insider cheating had occured on the site.
I think the timing of these signings says a lot about these players and really think they have “sold-out” to the poker community by joining up with a site that has been involved with recent insider cheating problems. This almost says that they do not see this as a problem and are essentially advocating what has happened by putting their names behind them.
Rizen expected the backlash from the poker community and wrote a long blog post about his thoughts on the new relationship. Unfortunately the one question that was avoided was how much they paid for him to represent a site that has such a black eye in the poker community right now. Rizen tried to justify the financial aspect of the deal by stating “a significant portion of my proceeds from my relationship with Ultimate Bet will be going towards charity” in his blog.
Many of his readers are not very happy about the signing and have left some of the following comments on his blog:
“I respect your approach…but not the decision. Keep crushing the AP games and repping UB…
I, for one, am going to unsubscribe to your blog now. Not like that matters…but it’s my personal stand I’m taking.” posted by Champ
“You are fueling a cheaters site with fire. So disappointed in you.” posted by Noricha
“BLABLABLA *SORRY BUT I’M A SELLOUT GUYS* BLABLABLA” posted by veertje
JohnnyBax also posted a similar response on 2+2 stating:
“Please understand that I would not sign with UB if I was not confident in current management. My signing with UB is contingent upon a satisfactory resolution of the “superuser” issue. I am hopeful a press release detailing the entire situation goes out shortly, players are reimbursed and satisfied, and UB can move forward and give players what they want.” He has received a similar welcome to team UB from the poker community.
I am sure this will have an impact on sales at PokerXFactor (an online training site run by Johnnybax where Rizen is also a guest pro). It is amazing what the power of the dollar can do to some people.
gtycoon said
am June 5 2008 @ 5:06 pm
Yeah, the timing of this signing is questionable. Perhaps UB needed to get focus off of the scandal and offered something that couldn’t be refused.
The thing is people can play at UB or not. They have a choice whether UB signs poker pros or not.
Graham said
am June 6 2008 @ 1:11 am
gtycoon,
I don’t really agree with your last statement. The reason sites sign poker pros is because these players have a following and they want them to promote the site. When players sign on as pros they are essentially marketing tools for the site which encourages sign-ups. So though I agree people have a choice, the reality is that most are not well-informed of the issues, but when they see these new pros coming on, they look at these sites as “well johnnybax or rizen play there, the site must be safe”.
gtycoon said
am June 6 2008 @ 4:56 pm
You are right Graham that the signings could persuade some people to play there although johnnybax or rizen aren’t really well known to the newer players. The players that know and follow those two are probably well informed poker players that know about the scandals.
Personally, I don’t think it was a good idea for rizen to sign with them.
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am July 12 2008 @ 4:47 am
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