Joe Sebok update

[Dan Druff]

Last we heard of Joe Sebok, he was crushing hella grapes for a living, which was a pretty huge downgrade from his high-profile Hermosa Beach party lifestyle of recent years past.

Now Joe has secured a better position, working for Platphorm, LLC in San Francisco. Here is their website: http://platphormcorp.com

He is "Director of Marketing" there.

What is Platphorm, besides an annoying-looking mangling of the word "platform"?

Platphorm provides a soup-to-nuts system that allows businesses to build scalable, reliable, marketplaces where buyers pay sellers for information delivered by voice, mail, chat, SMS, or recorded phone message.

What does our system do? Well, say you just got a puppy and you're interested in asking questions of a real, live expert on how to best train him. Google can't help you. Nor can Yahoo, Bing, or any traditional search engine. However, a site powered by our platform can: You type in "puppy training" and instead of getting a list of pages, you get a list of people -- real people -- ready to speak with you live over the phone to answer your questions or via mail, chat, or SMS. You can browse each provider's profile, look at their ratings, and read written feedback left by others.

When you find a provider you like, you press a "Call Now" button and our system initiates a call to you, then the provider, and you are connected to talk for whatever price per minute (or call) the provider has set. It's that simple. We white-label this system for other companies in any vertical, and handle not just the multimodal communications system, but all customer and community support, provider payment, and systems monitoring.

This isn't a new idea.

Many such "pay to talk to an expert" companies have existed on the web for a long time, and in fact some even bridged that to allow phone sex operators to freelance there, as well. No word if Platphorm allows phone sex "experts" on their service.

Anyway, the company is listed as having "11-50 employees" on Linkedin, and is located on famous Market Street in San Francisco.

Amazingly, Sebok lists Cereus as one of his past employers on his Linkedin. I guess he was afraid people would accuse him of hiding it, if he didn't. https://www.linkedin.com/pub/joe-sebok/38/478/227

Glad to see that at least Sebok has stayed out of poker. While he wasn't nearly as bad as the actual cheaters and accomplices at UB, he turned an intentional blind eye to the coverup, and used his then-good reputation (and by extension, his stepfather's) to give "the new UB" legitimacy, ultimately costing players even more millions when the whole thing went down in 2011.

[Dan Druff]

[Kuntmissioner]

In before Barry.

[duped_samaritan]

[ManInBlack]

[hotshott74]

Fixed the site's quote...

What does our system do? Well, say you just got an Ultimate Bet type scam happening on your poker site and you're interested in asking questions of a real, live expert shill on how to best dupe everyone. Google can't help you. Nor can Yahoo, Bing, or any traditional search engine. However, a site powered by our platform can: You type in "UB Shill" and instead of getting a list of pages, you get a list of people -- real people (e.g. Joe Sebok, Annie Duke, Phil Helmuth) -- ready to speak with you live over the phone to answer your questions or via mail, chat, or SMS. You can browse each provider's profile, look at their ratings, and read written feedback left by others.

[BeerAndPoker]

Barry Greenstein did an interview with Pokernews recently talking about random life story events,etc... It's kind of interesting if you are into that sort of thing.

If anyone cares here are a few clips and they have a few more you can find in the pokernews youtube channel.

[duped_samaritan]

Recently read that the guy who published Barrys book stole the royalties. He made a post about it about 6 months ago, surprised it didn't make more noise. He said in an interview the book set him back about 2 million + lost potential winnings during the poker boom.

Wonder how much pokerroad cost him.

Also, who is seeboks mom? I thought Barry only did Asians.

After the initial burst of the first six months, sales slowed down. The way I had it arranged with the publisher, I expected to get a royalty check every month or two, but it had been about six months since I received a check. It surprised me, so I contacted Charles Kaine to try and find out what was going on. Charles dodged my calls for months, never responding to any of my messages. It was getting ridiculous, because I knew the book was still selling well. Finally, I left a message informing Charles I would have to involve the police since he wouldn’t answer my calls and I wasn’t receiving my money.

A few days later, Charles admitted in an email that he had embezzled the money that was coming in. My book was by far the biggest title he had ever been involved with and when the money started rolling in, he “borrowed” it to invest in his own project—a bookstore or something of the sort. Charles thought his business would do really well and he’d be able to pay the money back quickly, but of course things didn’t go that way. The business failed, Charles blew through all my money, and he had no way to pay me back.

http://www.barrygreenstein.com/ace-r...on-publishing/

[Crowe Diddly]

Also, who is seeboks mom? I thought Barry only did Asians.

I think Joe was barryg's step-son.

[Brittney Griner's Clit]

Also, who is seeboks mom? I thought Barry only did Asians.

I think Joe was barryg's step-son.

which... means...

he married a non Asian at one time.

[Dan Druff]

Recently read that the guy who published Barrys book stole the royalties. He made a post about it about 6 months ago, surprised it didn't make more noise. He said in an interview the book set him back about 2 million + lost potential winnings during the poker boom.

Wonder how much pokerroad cost him.

Also, who is seeboks mom? I thought Barry only did Asians.

After the initial burst of the first six months, sales slowed down. The way I had it arranged with the publisher, I expected to get a royalty check every month or two, but it had been about six months since I received a check. It surprised me, so I contacted Charles Kaine to try and find out what was going on. Charles dodged my calls for months, never responding to any of my messages. It was getting ridiculous, because I knew the book was still selling well. Finally, I left a message informing Charles I would have to involve the police since he wouldn’t answer my calls and I wasn’t receiving my money.

A few days later, Charles admitted in an email that he had embezzled the money that was coming in. My book was by far the biggest title he had ever been involved with and when the money started rolling in, he “borrowed” it to invest in his own project—a bookstore or something of the sort. Charles thought his business would do really well and he’d be able to pay the money back quickly, but of course things didn’t go that way. The business failed, Charles blew through all my money, and he had no way to pay me back.

http://www.barrygreenstein.com/ace-r...on-publishing/

Wait, how would he have lost 2 million from the book?

That makes no sense.

I do believe the story of this Charles guy embezzling the money from the book, though.

I heard that Pokerroad had 20 (!!) full time employees at one point. They blew their money on both salaries and marketing. It came far too late, and there wasn't enough money left in poker media at that point to support a site like Pokerroad.

[TheXFactor]

Barry Greenstein's book "Ace on the River" was released in 2005, at the height of the poker boom and was a large paperback book that cost $25.00.

A lot of pictures, good life advice, and very little poker strategy.

Didn't Barry get his house in Rancho Palos Verdes, California repossessed?
Didn't Barry drop down in stakes, playing in smaller games because he went broke playing in the big games?

Do any of these old school professional poker players actually follow their own advice when it comes to money management?
Barry should have made an additional chapter in his book, about quitting while your ahead.