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Play By Play: The 2005 myVirtualCard Poker Tournament
By: Sidney Zombay
(Montreal) May 12, 2005 - Webmaster Access East had many reasons to justify its motto “Back Where We Belong” at this year’s Montreal edition, not the least of which was the first adult-industry live Poker Tournament held by myVirtualCard.com.
Shrimp cocktail and rum & cokes, live industrial rock and a touch of the adult biz in the form of a pair of curvy décor girls, thus the atmosphere was set for a no-limit Texas Hold’em tournament.
The billing company’s many clients, unanimous in their praise of services and support provided by multi-method processing platforms and innovations, indirectly recruited a good quota of registered players glad to fork over a little bit of cash for the chance to participate in the tournament.
Though prizes were the final pay out, participants numbered at least four dozen and included the inexperienced and those less obviously so.
Open bar helped early registration and tournament play take off as myVirtualCard CEO Howard Cohen made the opening address. “I wouldn’t hire him for my kid’s bar-mitzvah,” said myVirtualCard VP Joshua Ungar. “But he actually did a pretty good job, and this wasn’t a kid’s event.”
The tournament advanced with eminent adult personalities dropping like flies as eliminations accumulated. Mantas from Rabbit’s Reviews, Ron from PlugInFeeds – all called and folded and bet and dropped, with Raja from SexSearch and Ramos of GoFuckYourself struggling to keep straight faces.
As the tournament screws tightened, MVC programmers Jason Lotito and Richard Rondeau each grabbed a girl and took to the dance floor in a scene somewhat reminiscent of a hardcore-techie ball.
“I didn’t know they had it in them,” said Ungar. “I’ve never seen programmers move like that. They were each given a raise after the tournament.”
“There was one common complaint,” Ungar said. Apparently, one of the shuttle-bus drivers moonlighted as a tour-guide. “Players anxious to get to the tournament were taken on the scenic route and given an extensive Montreal History crash-course.”
“We also had a visit from the police,” said Ungar. “The tournament took place at Le Sanctuaire Health and Sporting club, which is connected to several prestigious condominium buildings. Since the club was in sort of a residential zone, the band, thankfully, was asked to stop playing.”
In the end the tournament played an organic poker that ended with Raffi, of AdultLounge, winning out over first-runner up Ramos of GoFuckYourself.
First prizes included free content from AdultContent.ca, and $1500 cash from the myVirtualCard crew. Also included in the package was a complete $12,000 live video chat site package from 2much.net, LiveCamNetwork 1.9, which included full support and, “everything from webdesign to back-end administration,” said 2much MediaGuy Greg Jones.
“We had a great time at the tournament,” Cohen said. “Many of our guys were quite inebriated, some of them probably for the first time in their lives. For others the same cannot be said.”
“Raffi and Ramster played a hell of a tournament,” Ungar said. “The Adult.com crew also put together a hell of a show.”
“The myVirtualCard team did a great job,” said Jones. “Pulling together to make the tournament a great success.”
Explained Ungar: “I really have a great team at myVirtualCard, which in my view is the key to longevity in any business. It’s going to be bigger and better next year.”
At which point he bit and ate a thousand dollar chip.
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About the Author
Zombay edits and writes for iSN News - The Link To Live Video Chat(www.internetsexnetwork.com), as well as blogging the adult industry via his Porn Zombie blog ( http://pornzombie.blogspot.com )
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