GGPoker is offering a $20,000 guaranteed tourney this Saturday with free entry for members of Fantastic Ladies In Poker. The tourney — called the $20k GGPoker Spring Festival FLIP Breakthrough — will start at 18:00 UTC on April 17. Non-members of FLIP can still join the action for a $10 buy-in.
FLIP is a Facebook group that aims to bring women in poker together and to advocate for their place in the poker world. FLIP is "the world’s foremost female-focused poker player community," according to GGPoker.
Daiva Byrne will be playing in the tourney. Byrne runs FLIP and is a major advocate for women in poker. GGPoker hired her as an outreach consultant, with an eye to buffing up its feminist credentials.
To add to the festive atmosphere, Kim Lee will be DJ-ing a set on the GGPoker twitch account for the tourney's run time. Kim Lee is one of the stars of Netflix's reality TV show Bling Empire. She also serves as a pianist, DJ, actor, or model depending on who is hiring.
"Partnering with the Fantastic Ladies In Poker, led by Daiva Byrne, has been a delight from day one,” said John Scanlon, GG's Head of Sponsorships & Live Events. “We’re excited to host another party night as part of the GG Spring Festival. The awesome Kim Lee is providing the beats and hopefully lots of GGPoker’s best players, both female and male, enjoying the music and tournament!"
GGPoker also tweeted about the event, writing: "Party with @ladies_poker and @OfficialKimlee! Exclusive DJ set on http://GGPoker.TV. This Saturday at 1800 UTC. Join the #FLIP community."
Blitz Kreig
Over the last few months, GGPoker has been fighting a running PR battle over its hiring of Dan Bilzerian.
Bilzerian's history of misogyny played poorly with much of the poker community. Despite the backlash, GGPoker dug in and refused to cut ties with Blitz. Instead, the company looked to Daiva Byrne and FLIP, hiring them in an effort to buy back some public support.
A few weeks after announcing its outreach to women program, GGPoker stirred things up again when it fired Vanessa Kade as an affiliate. The staff member who broke the news to Kade was careful not to mention Biltzerian specifically, but it was clear why Kade was getting the boot.
The leaked email made things far worse, as did GGPoker's ham-fisted attempt at an apology. The result was another PR firestorm and, presumably, a return to the drawing board for GGPoker's sensitivity training team.
Now that a few weeks have passed since GGPoker's last meltdown, it's finally ready to put its head above the parapet and try again.
At least this time GG is laying out some reasonable cash. $20,000 guaranteed for a half-freeroll still doesn't look great against the $100,000 guarantee for Bilzerian's birthday bash. On the whole, it's a less ugly picture than the $5 buy-in with $2,500 added, which was its first attempt at mollifying the angry public.
Whether it will work or not remains to be seen. Still, the set on Saturday should include some banging tunes.
Featured image source: Twitter
