Poker Community Reacts to Fantasy Poker Manager

One week after release, reception is favorable; real-money degenning took less than a day.

Fan and player reactions to last week’s introduction of Fantasy Poker Manager was near universally positive. Sure, maybe you’ll think of us as a little biased, but in fact, we take the reviews of the game very seriously, and very few negative ones have come across our desks so far. We’ll even be featuring some of them later, so comfortable we are in our own skin.

For those of you just catching up, Zokay Entertainment, in conjunction with the Global Poker Index, introduced Fantasy Poker Manager one week ago today, on January 31, 2013. The game, which is free to play and simulates fantasy sports but for poker tournaments, is meant “to promote poker as a sport and as entertainment,” according to company CEO Alex Dreyfus.

The consensus in the poker media is that Dreyfus is on to something. Matthew Pitt of PokerNews applauded the game, writing: “Launching today on Facebook, the GPI Fantasy Poker Manager is sure to be a massive hit with poker players and fans.” Earl Burton of Poker News Daily observed: “The move by Zokay Entertainment with this latest usage for the GPI is something that many might be able to get behind.” CardPlayer concluded: “It is hard to argue that Fantasy Poker Manager is an uncreative addition to the poker playing landscape, and the software itself must be given credit for being fun and having a lot of potential.”

While Zokay is of course honored and thankful for the positive coverage in the media, how the poker community felt about the game had to remain the number one priority. In this, we were not disappointed. In fact, we were delighted.

A true succession of internationally renowned poker pros took to expressing their approval of Fantasy Poker Manager. We are “reprinting” some of these tweets below:

That @GlobalPokerIndx Fantasy team is pretty cool, will finish my team tomorrow, help me to find some good picks!! https://t.co/TIllIMlM

— Jonathan Duhamel (@JonathanDuhamel) February 1, 2013

Absolutely loving @GlobalPokerIndx Fantasy Poker!!! Insdiders tip: PICK ME!!! I'll definitely win one in #Deauville https://t.co/cytRRlKW

— Marvin Rettenmaier (@MadMarvin) January 31, 2013

Feeling good about EPT Deauville. Draft me on your fantasy team! https://t.co/pJY8njR0 @GlobalPokerIndx

— Jason Koon (@JasonKoon) February 1, 2013

Drafted my fantasy team on @GlobalPokerIndx for EPT Deauville @nacho_barbero @MadMarvin @VanessaRousso @max_silver & Stevie444 !

— Liv Boeree (@Liv_Boeree) January 31, 2013

Accustomed as they are to high stakes, it’s amazing that a purely free-to-play social game caught these professionals’ fancy. With that said, it should not have come as any surprise either that it took barely a few hours for the first high-profile real-money degenning to make its glorious debut. Primary instigator was English poker pro Chris Moorman, who had this to say:

Just saw the GPI Fantasy Poker facebook app… looks pretty sick. Who is interested in doing some kind of a money league? #degenfun

— Chris Moorman (@Moorman1) January 31, 2013

Moorman’s pitch was met with interest by plenty of notable respondents, including David Sands, Kevin MacPhee, and Jose Ignacio Barbero.

(Please keep in mind that Fantasy Poker Manager is designed to be 100% free-to-play, meaning responsibility is 100% yours if you decide to get involved in any real-money leagues.)

We promised we would be featuring some of the more “negative” reactions to the game as well. Complaints were actually extremely few, and most of them had to do with technical issues that were dealt with privately and directly. No, there is not yet a mobile version, but we are working on it. Other than that, this minor detraction from one of our favorite people in poker, Matt Glantz, did make us light-headed for a bit…

Really like what u guys are doing for poker w @FantasyPoker but for now the site is very confusing imo. simple=better #GLGL

— Matt Glantz (@MattGlantz) February 4, 2013

Are we doing something wrong? Hey, we’re only human, we could be! (Lol, just kidding, we’re not.) At any rate, Glantz and our readers can rest assured that simplicity and usability are a main priority for Fantasy Poker Manager, and we dutifully take Glantz’s feedback into account.

And we will be glad to hear yours too. If you have played Fantasy Poker Manager and have an issue or a question, by all means contact us. You can email us at [email protected] or tweet us what’s on your mind @FantasyPoker.

Had enough of hearing about the game and want to skip to the playing part? Go right here! If you’re not sure how to play it, or your name is Matt Glantz, see if this brisk tutorial can be of help.

Good luck!