A new online poker site, 4Poker, is launching in an attempt to mix it with the big boys, and there is a surprising name on the team – accused poker cheat Bryn Kenney. With ambitions to join the illustrious ranks of online poker sites that have hundreds of thousands of dedicated players, 4Poker spoke to Poker.org in an exclusive interview this week, with some surprising words coming from the new site.
Bryn Kenney is Involved
The inclusion of the former GGPoker co-creator Bryn Kenney on the team of 4Poker is a surprising one, or a surprisingly timed one, depending on how you view his innocence or guilt in terms of the recent allegations made against him by poker player Martin Zamani.
The reality is that Kenney’s presence comes with a caveat in the current climate and there is an inescapable sense that nobody really knows the full story about the many accusations made against him.
This is frequently the case in times of the poker world mixing with the legal system; both Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson and Mike Postle have never sat down on camera and committed to an open forum where the tough questions have been answered to the satisfaction of the general public.
While Kenney has spoken on the accusations, the lingering feeling is that once again, full disclosure has been avoided for reasons that naturally make the poker world suspicious.
What Are the Motivations Behind 4Poker?
Kenney may well be looking to build a poker site that offers integrity, and a platform for players that is one of transparency and passion for the game alone. But if so, why not simply rejoin GGPoker in some form of official capacity and work alongside Jason Koon if he is so well respected? As has been the case for some months, more questions than answers remain, and while the feature on Poker.org addresses a few of these questions well, more questions spawn from the answers given by Kenney’s associate, like snakes on Medusa’s head.
With a marketplace currently split largely between the four main poker sites PokerStars, 888poker, GGPoker and partypoker, it’s hard to see where 4Poker might easily make ground in its race to catch the current market leaders. Hard perhaps, but not impossible. If any of those sites could encourage 4Poker in their quest to appeal to poker players, then it might be GG themselves.
Having raced into the marketplace under Kenney’s tutelage, their subsequent takeover and growth have been nothing short of phenomenal. Built on the consistency of online events such as the weekly $10,300 buy-in Super MILLION$, GGPoker has grown massively and a foray into live events to rival tours such as PokerStars’ EPT or at the very least, 888poker’s more rec-happy model is not out of the question.
Where Could 4Poker Have an ‘Edge’?
“I know Bryn has long and good relationships with the High Stakes poker community.”
Their team looks to home some of the people responsible for ‘Stars success over the years and recreating that Isai Scheinberg feeling behind the PokerStars of old would be something that truly gives any site the edge. To an extent, however, all three main competitors have tried to do so. With Players Councils, the ethic of ‘putting players first’ has never been higher on the agenda of the existing market leaders, so 4Poker would not be unique in trying to do the same. They’d be emulating rather than instigating those actions.
There’s no current launch date, so with plans still in their relative infancy – even a fully launched online poker site takes a long time to attract players – 4Poker COO Heath Cram told Poker.org that he believes Bryn Kenney is in the clear.
“I know Bryn has long and good relationships with the High Stakes poker community and people like Jason Koon, so he is in a good position as one of our ambassadors to help, as ironic as some may see that,” he said. When asked about the allegations made about Kenney, Cram described them as ‘a social media outburst by a character of pretty questionable credibility’.
Whether or not 4Poker becomes one of the established pack of online poker sites players gravitate towards may well depend on the credibility of those behind their creation – a discussion that still merits a decent debate.
