Martin Bradstreet Poker

posted on
12.13.2013

filed under
Reviews

Martin Bradstreet is an Aussie transplant in Montreal who enjoys online poker more for the game than any potential for fame. Danielle parlayed her husband's interest in poker into her own and soon became good at it. Martin is back on the podcast to talk about his just finished USA tour with his band, His experience out in Las Vegas during the WSOP, his new music video, p.

The 3 main characters are Tony Dunst, Martin Bradstreet and Danielle Anderson, and although all 3 come across so well during the film, it is Anderson that throws out the story that most non poker players will be slightly more interested in. Danielle Anderson is in no way shape or form the typical online poker player, again.not going to ruin.

I had heard at one point in the last few years that there had been some sort of crackdown on online poker, but I thought some deal was cut and that it had already returned. I know a guy at work, half Persian half Polish (surname is Polish, chest hair is Persian), who rounds at local games and is pretty good. And I thought that he mentioned a few times or another that he had done well in some online games. Now I'm struggling to remember if that was before or after April 15th, 2011, a date not affectionately known in the online poker world as 'Black Friday.' That's when the U.S. Dept. of Justice essentially killed the entire freakin' – and very lucrative – industry domestically.

As a result, thousands of people who not only made their living at online poker but in fact made fortunes on it had their futures immediately put into limbo. This was especially true for gamers who had their money tied up online in the coffers of Full Tilt Poker, one of the two big gaming sites at the time. Those assets became frozen when the site's co-owners had garnered lavish payments – and these are international poker superstars like Phil Ivey and Chris Ferguson – at the expense of the players' in-dispute funds. Those are just some of the stories explored in Bet Raise Fold: The Story of Online Poker from director Ryan Firpo, which examines the entire industry from its heyday in the early and mid-2000s up until the wheels came off the whole thing a couple years ago.

First off, the documentary is well made, getting in the complete story of the rise and fall of the industry and how it touched lives from World Series of Poker Champions to the guy down the street. It features interviews from over a dozen online pros, agents and poker journalists. The time frame of the doco is from November 2010 to roughly June 2013. We get the history of the first online gaming sites, the lifestyles that spawned from it and the television phenomena. Bet Raise Fold's assertion is that the industry really took off when the 'Chris Moneymaker Effect' kicked in. Chris Moneymaker is an accountant who won a spot in the 2003 WSOP from a $40 online gambit and ended up winning the whole thing. After that, the industry exploded.

Martin Bradstreet Poker

There are three primaries in the piece, the first being Danielle Anderson from New Ulm, MN, a wife and mother who supports her family by playing online. Tony Dunst is a young player who made good money at online gaming in Australia for a while, before returning to the States and getting a job as a host on the World Poker Tour. Martin Bradstreet is an Aussie transplant in Montreal who enjoys online poker more for the game than any potential for fame. Danielle parlayed her husband's interest in poker into her own and soon became good at it. The money she won online allowed her to take care of her family, buy her mother a horse, and the the biggest thrill she got from it all was keeping a stocked fridge, which was a rarity in her childhood.

Tony loves the James Bond lifestyle and getting custom suits made. He lives in Vegas in a friend's pool hoouse after studying, partying and playing poker Down Under. He capitalized on his knowledge, turning it into an audition and co-hosting position of the Raw Deal segment on the World Poker Tour TV program. At first he had difficulty re-adjusting to a life of responsibility after several years without it. And Martin traveled the world for several years playing online poker before settling in Canada.

We go back and forth from from the micro effects of the lifestyle on these three to the macro, charting the explosion of the industry until the anvil dropped in April 2011. The reasons for it all of course are nothing new: politics. There had been attempts for years to shut down online poker until some senators got sneaky and planted an anti-online poker provision into a port defense bill. So if Congress voted against it, they were voting to support terrorism or some such stupid shit. Once the bottom fell out, it affected everyone, and usually not in a good way. We see the effects on Danielle, which were life changing, Tony, affected to a certain extent, and Martin, who wasn't affected at all. A lot of the bad centers on the Full Tilt Poker debacle, which to date, has been the Enron of the industry. I would have liked to have seen more in depth exploration of that Full Tilt Poker situation, which is still evolving some 2 1/2 yers later. But otherwise, Bet Raise Fold is a solid first effort for director Firpo.

Bet Raise Fold is from 918 Films and is available on VOD now. A special edition of the film with 100 minutes of bonus materials can be found here: http://watch.betraisefoldmovie.com

Rating:

Out of a Possible 5 Stars

If you've got a film or project somewhere in the fringes that belongs in The Underground and needs some attention, hit me up at davidoliver64@netscape.net

Read more about: Bet Raise Fold, Online Poker, The Underground

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Community Activity

A couple of weeks we gave you the early reviews following the premiere of Bet Raise Fold: The Story of Online Poker at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.

I finally had a chance to watch the film (available here for $10) and now have some thoughts of my own – largely (but not entirely) positive – to share.

But first, let's set the stage.

Bet Raise Fold: The Central Characters

At its core the film tells the story of online poker from its earliest incarnations dating back to Planet Poker in 1998 to the current post-Black Friday apocalyptic poker world.

The bulk of the film centers on three main protagonists, each representing a specific segment of the poker playing population:

• Danielle Anderson: Anderson's role in the film is the most fleshed-out of the three as she represents two segments of the poker community, female players and players with families. Because of her family dynamic Anderson is easily the most sympathetic character in the film and someone you'll find yourself rooting for throughout. She also seems to have been the most affected by Black Friday, financially and emotionally.

• Tony Dunst: Dunst represents the single, college-age, male seeking an unconventional life that is pervasive in the online poker world: The young guy who is gifted at the game of poker but lacks any real direction, or sense of work-ethic, and the deeper understanding of the machinations of the outside world. Dunst is the quintessential Libertarian in the sense that he wants to be free to do what he wants without having to answer to someone. Dunst comes across as extremely likable, appears to be honest to a fault, and is another character you'll probably find yourself rooting for.

• Martin Bradstreet: Bradstreet represents the ROW of poker (Rest of World player for any non-poker aficionados out there) as an Aussie living in Canada, who unlike Anderson and Dunst didn't see his life completely upturned on Black Friday, just slightly inconvenienced. Without the Black Friday element the eloquent Bradstreet would likely have garnered equal billing with Anderson and Dunst, but with the secondary storyline that emerges partway through the film he was basically relegated to the role of supporting actor.

The Gist of the Film

What makes Bet Raise Fold so enthralling is that during the shooting of the film (which began in 2010) the main storyline was usurped by Black Friday, so the Bet Raise Fold team of Ryan Firpo, Jay Rosenkrantz, and Taylor Caby were able to capture in real-time the poker world literally being turned upside down through the eyes of Anderson, Dunst and Bradstreet.

Martin Bradstreet Poker Log

In an hour and a half the film takes you from the beginning of online poker to today, with all of the important stops in between. From Chris Moneymaker, to the exponential growth of poker knowledge and how these young mathematicians changed the game, to UIGEA and later Black Friday.

Martin Bradstreet Poker Game

Bet Raise Fold is real, it's emotional, and it's captivating.

Praise for Bet Raise Fold

• First off, Bet Raise Fold isn't some fly-by-night project. The movie looks and feels like any well-produced documentary; they interviewed relevant people for each segment, most of whom you don't see very often in interviews, like Nolan Dalla, Noah 'NoahSD' Stephens-Davidowitz, Phil Galfond, and Paul McGuire.
• Bet Raise Fold was made by poker players for poker players, so you are getting a real look at the underside of the poker world beyond what the TV cameras generally show.
• I really enjoyed that they touched on some of the finer points that have been lost in the shuffle between Moneymaker and Black Friday, like the online poker wars between PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, the onset of the nosebleed games, and the current trajectory of tougher and tougher games.
• The Nolan Dalla segments are fantastic. Full disclosure: I could read Nolan Dalla all-day every-day, and his interviews don't disappoint. In Dalla you have someone who simply 'gets it' about poker, and his ability to recall events and put them in their proper perspective is second to none.
• Watching Tony Dunst go from poker pro with tons of freedom to a company man is intense and in a way satisfying. It's a transformation I undertook myself in 2006 when UIGEA passed and my beloved Party Poker and the Cryptologic Network were taken away from me, so I could really relate to this evolution by Dunst, as I think most people who quit the game after Black Friday will as well.
• 'If it was a good day at poker it was a good day at our house; if it was a bad day at poker it was a day at our house,' was how Danielle Anderson's husband described the trials and tribulations of being married with a family and having his wife play poker for a living. This entire dynamic in the storyline really gave depth to Anderson in the film.

Criticisms and Unanswered Questions

Martin Bradstreet Poker Strategy

First off, the documentary is well made, getting in the complete story of the rise and fall of the industry and how it touched lives from World Series of Poker Champions to the guy down the street. It features interviews from over a dozen online pros, agents and poker journalists. The time frame of the doco is from November 2010 to roughly June 2013. We get the history of the first online gaming sites, the lifestyles that spawned from it and the television phenomena. Bet Raise Fold's assertion is that the industry really took off when the 'Chris Moneymaker Effect' kicked in. Chris Moneymaker is an accountant who won a spot in the 2003 WSOP from a $40 online gambit and ended up winning the whole thing. After that, the industry exploded.

Martin Bradstreet Poker

There are three primaries in the piece, the first being Danielle Anderson from New Ulm, MN, a wife and mother who supports her family by playing online. Tony Dunst is a young player who made good money at online gaming in Australia for a while, before returning to the States and getting a job as a host on the World Poker Tour. Martin Bradstreet is an Aussie transplant in Montreal who enjoys online poker more for the game than any potential for fame. Danielle parlayed her husband's interest in poker into her own and soon became good at it. The money she won online allowed her to take care of her family, buy her mother a horse, and the the biggest thrill she got from it all was keeping a stocked fridge, which was a rarity in her childhood.

Tony loves the James Bond lifestyle and getting custom suits made. He lives in Vegas in a friend's pool hoouse after studying, partying and playing poker Down Under. He capitalized on his knowledge, turning it into an audition and co-hosting position of the Raw Deal segment on the World Poker Tour TV program. At first he had difficulty re-adjusting to a life of responsibility after several years without it. And Martin traveled the world for several years playing online poker before settling in Canada.

We go back and forth from from the micro effects of the lifestyle on these three to the macro, charting the explosion of the industry until the anvil dropped in April 2011. The reasons for it all of course are nothing new: politics. There had been attempts for years to shut down online poker until some senators got sneaky and planted an anti-online poker provision into a port defense bill. So if Congress voted against it, they were voting to support terrorism or some such stupid shit. Once the bottom fell out, it affected everyone, and usually not in a good way. We see the effects on Danielle, which were life changing, Tony, affected to a certain extent, and Martin, who wasn't affected at all. A lot of the bad centers on the Full Tilt Poker debacle, which to date, has been the Enron of the industry. I would have liked to have seen more in depth exploration of that Full Tilt Poker situation, which is still evolving some 2 1/2 yers later. But otherwise, Bet Raise Fold is a solid first effort for director Firpo.

Bet Raise Fold is from 918 Films and is available on VOD now. A special edition of the film with 100 minutes of bonus materials can be found here: http://watch.betraisefoldmovie.com

Rating:

Out of a Possible 5 Stars

If you've got a film or project somewhere in the fringes that belongs in The Underground and needs some attention, hit me up at davidoliver64@netscape.net

Read more about: Bet Raise Fold, Online Poker, The Underground

like this article

tweet this article

like chud

follow chud

Community Activity

A couple of weeks we gave you the early reviews following the premiere of Bet Raise Fold: The Story of Online Poker at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.

I finally had a chance to watch the film (available here for $10) and now have some thoughts of my own – largely (but not entirely) positive – to share.

But first, let's set the stage.

Bet Raise Fold: The Central Characters

At its core the film tells the story of online poker from its earliest incarnations dating back to Planet Poker in 1998 to the current post-Black Friday apocalyptic poker world.

The bulk of the film centers on three main protagonists, each representing a specific segment of the poker playing population:

• Danielle Anderson: Anderson's role in the film is the most fleshed-out of the three as she represents two segments of the poker community, female players and players with families. Because of her family dynamic Anderson is easily the most sympathetic character in the film and someone you'll find yourself rooting for throughout. She also seems to have been the most affected by Black Friday, financially and emotionally.

• Tony Dunst: Dunst represents the single, college-age, male seeking an unconventional life that is pervasive in the online poker world: The young guy who is gifted at the game of poker but lacks any real direction, or sense of work-ethic, and the deeper understanding of the machinations of the outside world. Dunst is the quintessential Libertarian in the sense that he wants to be free to do what he wants without having to answer to someone. Dunst comes across as extremely likable, appears to be honest to a fault, and is another character you'll probably find yourself rooting for.

• Martin Bradstreet: Bradstreet represents the ROW of poker (Rest of World player for any non-poker aficionados out there) as an Aussie living in Canada, who unlike Anderson and Dunst didn't see his life completely upturned on Black Friday, just slightly inconvenienced. Without the Black Friday element the eloquent Bradstreet would likely have garnered equal billing with Anderson and Dunst, but with the secondary storyline that emerges partway through the film he was basically relegated to the role of supporting actor.

The Gist of the Film

What makes Bet Raise Fold so enthralling is that during the shooting of the film (which began in 2010) the main storyline was usurped by Black Friday, so the Bet Raise Fold team of Ryan Firpo, Jay Rosenkrantz, and Taylor Caby were able to capture in real-time the poker world literally being turned upside down through the eyes of Anderson, Dunst and Bradstreet.

Martin Bradstreet Poker Log

In an hour and a half the film takes you from the beginning of online poker to today, with all of the important stops in between. From Chris Moneymaker, to the exponential growth of poker knowledge and how these young mathematicians changed the game, to UIGEA and later Black Friday.

Martin Bradstreet Poker Game

Bet Raise Fold is real, it's emotional, and it's captivating.

Praise for Bet Raise Fold

• First off, Bet Raise Fold isn't some fly-by-night project. The movie looks and feels like any well-produced documentary; they interviewed relevant people for each segment, most of whom you don't see very often in interviews, like Nolan Dalla, Noah 'NoahSD' Stephens-Davidowitz, Phil Galfond, and Paul McGuire.
• Bet Raise Fold was made by poker players for poker players, so you are getting a real look at the underside of the poker world beyond what the TV cameras generally show.
• I really enjoyed that they touched on some of the finer points that have been lost in the shuffle between Moneymaker and Black Friday, like the online poker wars between PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, the onset of the nosebleed games, and the current trajectory of tougher and tougher games.
• The Nolan Dalla segments are fantastic. Full disclosure: I could read Nolan Dalla all-day every-day, and his interviews don't disappoint. In Dalla you have someone who simply 'gets it' about poker, and his ability to recall events and put them in their proper perspective is second to none.
• Watching Tony Dunst go from poker pro with tons of freedom to a company man is intense and in a way satisfying. It's a transformation I undertook myself in 2006 when UIGEA passed and my beloved Party Poker and the Cryptologic Network were taken away from me, so I could really relate to this evolution by Dunst, as I think most people who quit the game after Black Friday will as well.
• 'If it was a good day at poker it was a good day at our house; if it was a bad day at poker it was a day at our house,' was how Danielle Anderson's husband described the trials and tribulations of being married with a family and having his wife play poker for a living. This entire dynamic in the storyline really gave depth to Anderson in the film.

Criticisms and Unanswered Questions

Martin Bradstreet Poker Strategy

• I would have liked to have seen more of the 'Holla Balla' angle to Dunst's life as a young poker pro in Las Vegas. While it was hit upon in the film it could easily be interpreted as a single party and not as a lifestyle. For instance, what kind of money was coming in and flowing out after a good day at the tables and what were they blowing it on? Does he regret some of these spending sprees?
• Where was the story of the players that didn't make it, or simply gave up after their first few deposits were lost? Anyone who is a regular reader of mine knows I have a fascination with the parenthetical, so I would have liked to have seen a video version of parenthesis (the cut-away) in Bet Raise Fold address the 95% of poker players who play for fun or have been felted –even if it was only for a three or four-minute segment.
• Is the story compelling enough to appeal to a non-poker crowd? This is the million-dollar question of course, and to be completely honest I really don't know. We'll find out down the road, but my initial hunch is that even with its sympathetic characters and solid production quality it will still be viewed as a bunch of young kids gambling by the general public.