Poker Agent
As you begin building up your casino CV you might be tempted to turn
your hobby into a living. This is where poker agencies come in. A poker
agent exists to manage your sporting career just as a showbiz agent
manages actors. In other words they maximise your earnings. Not
surprisingly then, agencies have blossomed over the last ten years as
poker popularity boomed.
So what do agents actually do to earn their commission? Well services
will vary from agency to agency but here are some of the skills they
bring to the gaming table.
Firstly, they are likely to have contacts with poker managers, getting
their foot in the door of the poker room on your behalf. This also means
that deals are authorised by the poker room and therefore come with a
degree of protection. They can negotiate a better deal from the poker
room for you. Secondly their expertise can be an invaluable learning
tool. Good agents will support you face to face, giving vital feedback
to improve your performance. Thirdly their links with the professional
world of poker may be a big help in securing sponsorship, as again, they
have the contacts. Fourthly they can take care of the administrative
side of your career. Maybe you got into poker to get away from the red
tape! Nevertheless, there will be phone calls, emails, business
negotiations, tickets, hotel reservations, banking services and
security. The perfect agent will take all these chores off your
shoulders. The agent leaves you free to concentrate on the thing you
love most. Playing poker to the best of your ability.
So what should you bear in mind when seeking an agency? From the outset
bear in mind whether they share your goals and ambitions. It is crucial
to make sure early on you are both on the same page, or should we say
the same gaming table. Otherwise down the road there may be professional
conflict that will undermine your plans.
Moreover, do you feel comfortable with your potential agent? You will be
talking by email, phone and even in person at tournaments, so you need
to cement that working relationship.
What about finances? Most reputable agents charge a commission of
10-20%. Like any business deal decide before the ink dries whether you
are satisfied with percentages offered. It is a wise precaution, if you
can, to make contact with their current clients and ask for their
experiences. Most important of all, agree a contract with clear terms
and conditions. This is the professional way to protect your career.
After all, your wagers are your investments. Look after them
dearly.
As the game grows, due no doubt to the success of online gaming, poker
agencies have grown alongside. Although originally an American
innovation, today agents are becoming a integral part of UK
poker. So if poker is your passion, you might want to apply
to an agent. But remember to treat it as seriously as you would a job
application. Agents only make money when their clients do, so you need
to convince them you are the real deal.Flying start to 2010!
Per Hagen - CEO, Poker Icons
Annette wins the PLO event at the Aussie Millions and takes 7th
in the main event! Wow, talk about getting a flying start to the year!
To top things off we already negotiated 2 sponsorship deals; Alex Kamberis joins the Brunson 10 and Dragan Galic has joined Team Party! Poker Icons also won a spot on the BLUFF Power 20 list so this year looks like it's going to be a grrrrrreat one!
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Summary of 2009 - Poker Icons
Per Hagen - CEO, Poker Icons
Life
as a poker agent and running a poker agency is so fast-paced that it's
hard to even know where to begin this summary (or even find the time to
write it). 2009 has been a very successful year for Poker Icons, and we
have been lucky to be able to work with such great players and partners.
I think I'll dive right into it and list the poker sponsorship deals we have been able to put together in 2009;
Arnaud Mattern joins Pokerstars as a team pro
Thierry van den Berg joins Pokerstars as a team pro
Maria Maridu Mayrinck joins Pokerstars as a team pro
Josè Barbero joins Pokerstars as a team pro
Chris Moorman joins Doyle's Room as a member of the Brunson 10
Ramzi Jelassi joins Red Kings
Jonas Molander joins Red Kings
Ivo Donev joins Red Kings
Peter Jepsen joins Betfair
Michael Tureniec joins Full Tilt Poker
Soren Kongsgaard joins Full Tilt Poker
João Barbosa joins Full Tilt Poker
Ryan Dreyer joins Full Tilt Poker
Jacob Vedel joins Everest Poker
Matt Vengrin joins UB
Stefan Matsson joins Purple Lounge
We are quite happy with being able to have negotiated these sponsorship deals on behalf of our players.
The poker agency also signed some new very interesting players in 2009;
Layne Flack
David Sands
Jeremy Gaubert
Jeff Williams
Kathy Liebert
JJ Liu
Juha Helppi
Alex Kamberis
James Obst
Jon Van Fleet
Dragan Galic
Sam Trickett
Jay Kinkade
Neil Stewart
Neil McFayden
Greg Ronaldson
JJ Hazan
We are very proud to have been able to add these to the poker agency in addition to the other ones we are already working with!
In
2009 the players that Poker Icons represent achieved some great results
whereof 3 WSOP final tables, 33 cashes and $1.4M in total winnings.
Dragan Galic finished in 5th place in the EPT Grand Final event #1,
Annette finished in 13th place at the EPT Grand Final main event (aces
cracked), Ramzi Jelassi won the IPT Main Event, Michael Tureniec went
into the Partouche Poker Tour Grand Final (€1M to the winner) as the
chipleader, John Tabatabai
wins the Aussie Millions heads up event, Annette Obrestad takes a 3rd
place in the Late Night Poker show and a bunch of other great results
also! Combined the player won over $5 million in 2009, but with a
little bit of luck (no bad luck at least), it would have been much
more. I think if they keep it up the variance will swing their way and
we'll see many many great scores from them in 2010!
Chris
Moorman finished ranked #1 in the (online) world, a spot that David
Sands took from him just after 2010 started. Jon Van Fleet is currently
in 5th and hot on their trails...
Arnaud Mattern and João Barbosa are ranked 10th and 11th on the EPT all time leaderboard.
Michael Tureniec is voted as Sweden's best newcomer and best player.
Annette Obrestad is nominated as best female player of the year.
Jesper Hougaard is nominated as player of the year with his WSOP and WSOPE bracelet.
Poker Icons were co-hosts at a charity event that took place in Cannes. The event was attended by Paris Hilton, Willem Dafoe, Jamie Gold and other stars.
All in all, Poker Icons and its players got 17 front covers and 1789 (according to Google) articles/interviews during 2009.
6 poker cruises have been arranged and 11 tournaments and events.
We want to thank all the players and partners for a great year, and look forward to making 2010 even better!
- Per
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Per Hagen - CEO, Poker Icons
WSOP 2009 - Big Year
Just booked our room at Wynn Encore and we look forward to be staying there.
We
expect this years WSOP to be one of the best ever! Not only do we have
high hopes for our 40+ own players, but we also expect to meet some
interesting people and launch something exciting right after the series
has "ended" (main event obv dont fininsh before October).
Anyone who feel like it can look me up for a drink and a chat..
See you there!
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Per Hagen - CEO, Poker Icons
The EPT Final and WSOP
We
are approaching the EPT Final in Monte Carlo, and the event looks to
have the biggest prizepool in poker's history (outside the US). Almost
every Poker Icons player will be attending the EPT Final in Monte
Carlo, and we would not be surprised if one of them took it home.
We
just finished up the EPT in San Remo and it had a staggering 1200
players entering, giving the winner; Constant Rijkenberg almost $2
million for his efforts.
Interview with Constant Rijkenberg after winning EPT San Remo
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Per Hagen - CEO, Poker Icons
The revealing of Peter Jepsen
Peter "Zupp" Jepsen is a cool
guy, so we needed a cool way of breaking the news that he's the newest
member to Betfair Poker's pro team! So we announced to the media that
they should all meet in the hotel lobby during the EPT in Copenhagen to
see who it was. In walked Peter fully dressed in a motorcycle outfit
and with a helmet on. He stood in the lobby without saying a word or
showing his face for 10 minutes, before he lead the way out to a custom
bus waiting outside where he finally took of his helmet and showed
himself to the press. Yes it was unothorodox, but it got the attention
we were looking for :)
- Per
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Per Hagen - CEO, Poker Icons
After day 1a we have Albert
Iversen on third place. Arnaud Mattern is also still in the game.
Today, we look forward to see Annette Obrestad, Soren Kongsgaard,
Michael Tureniec, Peter Jepsen, Jesper Hougaard, Stefan Mattsson, Ramzi
Jelassi, Jonas Molander, Andrew Feldman and Casper Hansen in action.
One of the most exciting day 1
tables ever is probably also going to take place; Jesper Hougaard,
Michael Tureniec, Annette Obrestad, Gus Hansen and Bertrand Grospellier
all at the same table! An exciting table and day to follow. The
action starts in a couple of minutes...
- Jonas
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Per Hagen - CEO, Poker Icons
Poker Icons Lounge preparation
We are having a Poker Icons VIP lounge
for our players, partners and friends during the Pokerstars EPT
Copenhagen, and here is a billion things to take care of for the lounge
- but thank god we got people who have done it before and know the
drill.
Having a poker agency lounge is
something new at the EPT (thanks to the EPT organizers for allowing
it), and we hope the visitors will like it.
We are sending anything from 10
to 30+ players to each EPT event and want to take care of them the best
way possible. After all, being a high paid poker pro is no picnic so we
can at least ease the burden by doing this
No seriously, it's something we have are thrilled to do as it's a nice
way of bringing together the agency, players, partners and friends...
- Per
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Per Hagen - CEO, Poker Icons
Big name joined Poker Icons!
WPT and EPT (high roller event) winner Juha Helppi from Finland just agreed to let Poker Icons represent him as his poker agency.
It wasent without fierce competition we won his signature - but we won
We really look forward to working with this fantastic player who is actually our first player from Finland (!)
It's days like this that make it worth while with all the long hours and hard work...
Now - back to shoveling snow! (this year it's a snow record where I live!)
- Per
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Per Hagen - CEO, Poker Icons
Exciting times..!
Ok, so now it's official - Poker Icons and Vegas Group have merged.
First let me give you a little background about both companies.
Vegas
Group is considered as the best (poker) event organizers in Scandinavia
as well as having some of Swedens finest poker players in their
relatively new poker agency division. They also have a solid
relationship with the Swedish poker and general media.
Poker
Icons have a reputation as being the premier agency for professional
poker players from all over the world. We are by far the biggest
withing our niche in Europe, and we have good connections and relations
with the worldwide poker media.
Ok, so here is how it all came about...
I
came to talking with Lars Kollind, the CEO of Vegas Group sometime
early in October 2008, and we both soon realized that we shared the
same philosophy on how to do things and where we wanted to go...
It seemed like our companies had so many obvious synergies that a merge made perfect sense!
As
you can imagine it's not very easy to merge 2 companies like we wanted
to do, but after some friendly negotiations where we among other
things, decided that Lars Kollind should be the CEO, while I take the
role as President of the poker agency - here we are!
Both
parties consider the merge as the birth of a true "super agency" within
the industry, and we are now able to not only continue to deliver
premium services to professional poker players, but also serve the
partners in a very powerful 1-stop-shop way!
I don't know about you. but I am really excited!
(Oh
and to top it off, we just signed a really high profiled poker player
to our poker agency - more on that in the upcoming press release).
- Per
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