It's not often that someone comes along asking poker players to tell them bad beat stories. It very well may have never happened at this scale. You see, bad beat stories are not sought after. That just doesn't happen. More often, the story-teller thrusts their tale upon the listener, unwillingly. The important thing to know is that not many people enjoy listening to bad beat stories, but everyone loves to tell them.
Dara O'Kearney and David Lappin, the Irish minds behind Unibet's The Chip Race Poker Podcast, have put out a call to all recreational poker players: tell us your bad beat story for a chance to win a Unibet Open poker package for their upcoming stop in Bucharest this coming November.
Both O'Kearney and Lappin have years of experience dealing with bad beats and their accompanying tales. They've seen their fare share, dealt out their fair share, and taken their fare share.
As O'Kearney recalls it, "At the start of my career, all the Irish players came up to me at the breaks to tell me their bad beat stories. Then I met David who shooed them away screaming things like ‘leave the poor man alone’ and ‘nobody wants to hear your crybaby stories’. Once they were gone, he was free to tell me his, and only his, bad beat story.”
A chance to profit off of a bad beat
The timing for this promotion works well, coming on the heels of numerous large tournament series. The WSOP in Las Vegas, WSOP Online on GGPoker, and WCOOP on PokerStars, among many others. With all those events played, there's bound to be some bad beats lingering on players' minds.
The competition follows a simple format. You either write up, or record a video of yourself telling, a bad beat story. The more painful, the better. The more dramatic the re-telling, the better. If you can make O'Kearney and Lappin either laugh, cry, or scream at the heavens, you've done your part and you might just win the package for it.
The competition closes tomorrow at midnight, so be sure to get your story straight and send it off to O'Kearney and Lappin. Once the submissions are in, O'Kearney and Lappin will narrow the list down to several finalists. Those finalists will then be judged by an independent panel from PokerOrg to determine the winner.
There can only be one winner, so even submitting your story opens you up to another bad beat.
Lappin sums up the aim of the competition nicely, saying, "Deep down, poker players are masochists. If we weren’t already to begin with, we all had to learn to love the pain. I really hope this contest will encourage people to dig deep and look for the most harrowing, agonizing and hilarious beats of their career. Remember: There can only be one winner so really, we are dishing out even more pain.”
There are a few rules that submitters must follow to be eligible for selection. They are as follows:
- Entry Period from 00:01 on 22/09/23 to 23:59 on 13/10/23
- Entrants must be 25+ years old
- Entrants must have a Unibet Poker Account
- Entrants need to be able to travel: 29th November – 3rd December 2023
- Entrants may not be professional poker players
- Video entries must be in English
Terms and Conditions
- Competition Open from 00:01 on 22/09/23 to 23:59 on 13/10/23
- Entries received outside these times will not be considered
- Entries received as a reply to a Social Media post from one of the Unibet Poker Ambassadors
- The ambassador will reply to the post when they have received the entry
- Entrants must have a Unibet poker account at time of entry
- If the player Unibet account cannot be verified in accordance with local gaming legislation requirements then the full prize will be forfeit
- Unibet poker account player ID must be in the reply post with the video entry
- Round 1 judging done by the Unibet Ambassadors who will select the finalists
- Finalists announced by 12:00CET on 15th October
- Winners selected by judges based on criteria stated on ChipRace promotional landing page, no other correspondence
- Entrants must be 25+ years old
- Winner selected from finalists by Senior Poker Marketing Manager and Senior Poker Product Manager
- Finalist Judging period closes 20/10/23
- Winner announced by 12:00CET on 22/10/23
- Winner must be eligible to travel to the event venue on the event dates
- Winner is responsibl for arranging travel to and from the venue
- Package includes: €1k Main Event Entry, 4 Nights in 5* hotel and €250 expenses
- Package does not include any form of personal travel or health insurance
- Expenses portion credited to Unibet Gaming Account only
- Unibet Poker Management reserves the right to cancel or amend all, or part, of this promotion at any time.
