Funfair: Blockchain Solutions for Gaming.
For those of you unfamiliar with Funfair. Here's a brief overview:
Funfair was Founded in 2017, and is an Ethereum-based platform for online casino gaming.
Founded in 2017, FunFair is an Ethereum-based platform for online casino gaming. The online gambling market is predicted to be worth $60 Billion by 2020. Funfair isn’t actually a casino, instead, they licence out the underlying gaming technology to casinos and other gambling platforms.
One of the brilliant things about Funfair is that they market their software to casinos that mainstream audiences already use.
Now, the major challenge faced by casino operators today, especially online casino operators, is the question of trust in their offerings. To put it simply, users are reluctant to trust these services. Players feel insecure about the true odds of the games they’re playing, even if those odds are made available by the casino site.
The reason being, current server based gaming infrastructure is vulnerable to tampering and fraud. And players have no way to verify that everything is fair in the games they’re playing.
Now, Funfair have been able to solve the problem of trust, in online gambling. By building technology that cannot cheat anyone. Funfair runs on Blockchain, and Ethereum smart contracts it offers players a transparent, fair and publicly audit-able gaming experience. Player protection and provable fairness are guaranteed.
Transparent RNG ensures that the games are provably fair. Game logic is verifiable and run by Blockchain smart contracts.
Unlike other Blockchain casinos, Funfair games play as fast as any traditional online casino.
No bank account is required, so deposits and withdrawals are virtually instant. There's no need to trust a casino with your funds because funfair games let you play straight from your Crypto wallet. Winnings for every game are held in escrow by the Blockchain and paid out instantly.
For operators, fewer servers, fewer databases, fewer security & technical staff, as well as fewer internal personnel, means that costs are significantly reduced. And, no fees or charge-backs for the operator.
Funfair powered casinos' run on Blockchain, which is resistant to hardware failure, power outage or attack.
In short, Funfair casinos are faster, easier, and cheaper to create than traditional software.
The Funfair Team: Now, the team. The team is an all star team of 50 plus individuals. The leadership are industry veterans and experts in the gaming field. Arguably, the most accomplished team in Crypto. When you consider their combined gaming industry experience, relevant entrepreneurial and business experience, as well as an extraordinary track record of prior success, in the gaming industry. I would, at least, put the team on the same standing as the team at ripple, but would have to award the Funfair team extra points for their prior track record of success in the gaming industry.
Jez San OBE: Jez San the CEO and Co-founder of funfair, came to the project with an extensive background in gaming and online gambling that stretches back to 1982, as well, he has a more modern appreciation and experience in Cryptocurrency circles.
Jez received his first computer at the age of twelve in 1978. Within a year he'd taught himself assembly language for several microprocessors.
He founded Argonaut Software as a teenager in high school as a way to get software consulting jobs with large companies. He worked on security systems with British Telecom and Acorn. In 1984, at 18 years of age, he started developing his first game, Skyline Attack for the Commodore 64, he also co-wrote a book, Quantum Theory, about the Sinclair QL. And, he became a wizard (admin) at Essex MUD, the world's first multiplayer online role-playing game.
His late-1986 game Starglider for the Atari ST and the Commodore Amiga sold hundreds of thousands of copies (earning him £2 per copy in royalties). The money helped launch Argonaut as a larger company that started hiring other people in 1986.
In 1996, Argonaut received external funding from Apax Partners and was publicly listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2000.
He also helped found ARC International when it was spun out from Argonaut in 1998 and was its largest shareholder on IPO.
Between 1999 and 2002, he founded Codeplay and is currently the majority shareholder.
He received an OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in 2002, the first explicitly awarded for services to the computer game industry.
He founded Crunchy Frog Ltd, which in 2005 became online poker company PKR. An online poker room that allowed users to play poker in a virtual reality setting.
In 2008, he co-founded mobile application developer and publisher Origin8. Which produces iPhone and BlackBerry software, and has offices in London.
Jeremy Longley: The CTO of Funfair is Jeremy Longley, who was a co-founder of PKR.com. Longley has extensive experience in both 2D and 3D game creation and in the past has led teams to develop innovative HTML5 and Android products, cashier systems, account management features, and third party system integrations.
He also has an MA in Computer Science with 1st Class Honours from Cambridge University. He seems to be a dominant figure behind a lot of the tech at Funfair.
Oliver Hopton: Funfair’s third founder, Oliver Hopton, has over 15 years experience building gaming products. Including 10 years as Software Development Manager at PKR and 18 months as CTO at EveryFan. He, along with Longley, also appears to be a leading figure behind a lot of the tech at Funfair.
Stefan Kovach CCO at Funfair: Stefan was previously Marketing director at PokerStars for nearly 12 years.
James Harrison Director of Corporate: James was Compliance and Licensing Director at Gaming Realms for 3 years, and CEO at AlchemyBet for 5 years, 5 months.
The FUN Token: FUN is the native token that powers every aspect of the Funfair gaming ecosystem. It is the betting chip that pits player against casino, the financial reward paid to developers for their games, and the fuel that enables key processes on the network.
Ownership of individual tokens is anonymous.
A total of just under 11 billion FUN tokens were created on June 22, 2017, and no more will be created. There are 5.3 billion FUN in circulation. With this fixed supply, the token is deflationary and should experience increases in price over time as demand for it increases. Furthermore, Funfair singe all FUN that are collected as fees. Singe is a term that refers to very very long-term cold storage, and with the potential to be destroyed, when the regulatory atmosphere permits. Taking these tokens out of circulation, in this way, should also put upward pressure on price.
Importantly, casinos' must stake enough FUN to cover payouts / winnings. Which basically means that a lot of FUN will be locked up in the networks growing list of casinos'.
Now, we are currently in a major bear market. But, do stop to remember, that this does not reflect on Funfair. What is does reflect on is the current state of the market. Markets are cyclical and I, personally, expect a recovery and corresponding bull market will be forthcoming (Just my opinion).
Partnerships: Funfair have a number of partners.
Spike Games is one. Spike Games is a well-known creator of slot games. Funfair partnered with them in April this year. Spike are assisting in the creation of new Blockchain versions of popular slot games.
Big Wave Gaming is another partner. Big Wave is a Sydney based slot game creator, with a focus on Asian markets. The partnership was created to give Funfair better access to Asian markets.
And of course, RakeTheRake. Rake the Rake is the largest and most reputable Rakeback affiliate in the worldwide poker market today.
CasinoFair: Funfair has launched the first brand to go live on their network: CasinoFair.
CasinoFair, under its tagline ‘Famous for Fairness’, goes beyond traditional limitations and offers players the fairest experience possible using decentralization of the Blockchain as well as Fate Channels, which is Funfair’s proprietary version of generalized state channel technology.
Players use FUN to play, directly funded from their Crypto wallet, a growing range of premium games are available on CasinoFair. Including Funfairs latest titles, Wheel of Fun, Fate of Thrones and FunDice, along with a host of popular casino games such as European Roulette and Blackjack.
CasinoFair will only get bigger and better, as Funfair evolves from offering a service to the Crypto community to disrupting the mass gaming market.
Sales Funnel: Funfair is currently putting a lot of emphasis on optimizing CasinoFair's sales funnel. This will make it significantly easier and faster for players to start playing on Funfair powered Casinos' going forward!
Funfair is also putting a lot of emphasis on players being able to purchase FUN directly at the Casino.
We can expect to see these improvements in the weeks, and months ahead.
Funfair players can look forward to a significantly streamlined entry into FF powered casinos'.
New Games: Funfair also anticipate a steady roll out of new games over the coming weeks and months! Including space slots and pirate slots, two more wheels, an Alice Cooper slot, as well as, a fishy slot, from outside game developers. Along with some other stuff too. There's a lot happening at Funfair. The Fishy slot is apparently insane and something to really watch out for. These games will add to Funfairs ever expanding line-up of games.
RaketheRake Casino: Also, the second Casino on the Funfair network is set to be launched this quarter. It will be operated and marketed by RaketheRake. For those of you unfamiliar with RaketheRake, they are the largest and most reputable Rakeback affiliate in the worldwide poker market. RaketheRake currently work in conjunction with all of the top poker rooms to increase traffic to their casino sites and secure the best Rakeback deals for their players. The Funfair powered casino will be the first casino owned and operated directly by RaketheRake.
Funfairs Competitors: Funfair has a few Crypto-based competitors but is far ahead of the competition. Nevertheless, with the popularity of Blockchain gambling, as well as the sheer size of the market it wouldn’t be surprising to see more competitors enter the space.
Decent Bet, Edgeless, and Dao.Casino are some Blockchain-based casinos. However, by licensing out their tech to casinos, Funfair isn’t in direct competition with these projects. Instead, Funfair faces competition from platform providers in the traditional online gambling space such as Kambi, Gig, and EveryMatrix.
In Summary: I'd have to say I rate Funfair very highly among all the Crypto projects out there. They have excellent leadership, with a proven track record of success, a great team, a lot of industry experience, a great concept, and a working product to back it up, strong Tokenomics, with FUN being needed to fuel every aspect of the Funfair network. Additionally, all fees are singed, as well as, casinos' having to stake enough FUN to cover casino payouts.
If anyone can find a silver-lining in the current environs it's gonna be the best and brightest of crypto folks.

A question for UK poker players

Today i fucked up by playing live for the first time.

My Poker story p1, thoughts, and personal takeaways (long)

Hiya rpoker I wonder what the community would think about content such as my story below, writing part 2 and would share if yall like part 1, enjoy.

Intro and about meself:
I always liked the feeling of throwing some personal history out to be forever immortalized by floating even as a dust speck inside one of humanity’s most brilliant creations, the interwebz, and so here it is. I’m a 27yr old Canadian player who only plays live, currently still in school and taking poker very opportunistically. Coming from a chess and sports background, I have always been competitive. I have been playing live poker for just unde a year; it is during this time that I grew and molded myself into the player that I am now. Current I consider myself a below average reg in the live 2-5 scene that's offered locally. It is by shitty life chances and choices I discovered Poker when I was 17, played very recreationally in the 4 years since, tossed in around 3000$, never studied the game, just one of pokerstar’s many fish and losing drooling noobs.
Steping into the live Poker scene:
Never having touched real chips since playing online 8 years ago, it was always on the to-do list for a friend and I to play live in a local casino, and luckily we have one with a proper card room. In that 1-2 experience, we both lost our 200$ buy in relatively quickly, but it sparked something in me. A few months after that experience (just under a year ago) I went and stepped in the scene myself. I took out 1000$ in cash and would set it to be my bankroll. To summarize this 1000$ experience, I was overbluffing all-ins. Not knowing about the stationy tendencies of live 1-2 players I quickly lost the money as an action fish. Experience was gained and lessons were learned and I still had the drive and will to try and beat the game or atleast make my money back. I set aside another 2000$ and told myself that if ever I lose it all I would be done with live poker forever. Playing as a tigher fish this time, not overbluffing as much, but due to lack of knowledge and falling into beginners fallacies such as always slowplaying the nuts and calling it down I soon found myself stuck with my last 500$ of the second investment. It was during summer holidays for students and I made my way to the casino to finalize my poker fate. It would be a Monday I would never forget. Sitting at the table would be Zeus. He would fight to win almost every single hand by shoving, resulting in constant rebuys of 200$s. Regular actions would be that people fold/limp to him, he would raise to 25 with a single green chip toss, and all in soon to follow. The way he played was just short of buying in for the max and shoving 100bbs blind pre. What’s also to note that he was very sleepy. He would fall asleep during a hand only to have the dealer wake him up and tell him that it’s his action. I have never seen anything like it. I developed a plan, which was to see as many cheap flops as I can and evaluate post-flop. From 250$ buy in I was down to 160$ from call/fold trying to spike a hand against the maniac. Then this hand came, was button with AKo, Zeus opens 25 utg1 and I make it 77$. Folds to him who announces call, and promptly falls asleep in his chair. Dealer probes him to wake up and put the chips in the middle. It took a long minute before getting him to wake up and the first thing he does was to toss his cards into the muck, awarding me 77$ from him uncontested. The two hours to follow was the biggest run good of my life. I made hands and have Zeus bluff me all-in winning 200$ at a time. He dumped around 5000$ that day, and left after the two hours. I was up 1000$ and went home with a smile.
Getting better at the game:
I studied many hours of poker at home after that experience. What I meant by study was just to watch high stakes poker more observantly and watching how the pros played. No guidance, just a monkey see monkey do kind of learning. If I could go back and meet my then-self I would slap him so hard for thinking that I was ‘legit learning’ from watching, as much of what I saw was hard to apply in my own game. I still got better, my biggest takeaway step on getting better is to “Fold more often pre, raise less often as bluffs, call less often, and if being put in a tough spot, FOLD”. I started producing small winning sessions at 1-2, starting to identify the fish and regs at the table, understood player tendencies such as OMCs and calling stations, etc. I would never forget my first value all-in on riv which got called, had QQ on a T high paired board got called by guy with AT. It sounds comically standard now but it was a proud moment for me and it felt really encouraging to see studies and efforts paying off. The second big break for me came playing one casual Friday afternoon. Started playing around 2pm and went into 9pm with an even stack starting the day. Mind you I still had no idea that playing at different days and hours would yield different game types but at that day starting 9pm, I received a mixture of rungood and a taste of super Friday night poker. Events include getting paid 2 streets while flopping a straight flush, turning nuts and getting shoved on, 3 streets value with Top pair top kicker etc. From my Iphone timestamp, at 4am I was sitting with a 1400$ stack from my initial 300 on a 1-2 which to me felt absolutely insane. I had never stayed up this late playing but the universe kept giving me reasons to stay. Plenty of times I wanted to get up and leave but a seeming rich/drunk dude would sit down, and I would tell myself to ‘try n earn bit more’ and it would work out. During this time, my table merged with another and a reg with also a 1000$ stack sat directly to my left. We chatted quite a bit and I was not shy to admit my excitement of first time staying up this late playing poker on a Friday night and seeing all this amazing amazing action going on. He was friendly and told me many truths about the scene which included how Friday night games would much softer, and that best way to get paid is to set-mine and value-raise etc. In the meantime, I see him glaring at my chips in position while half asleep knowing that he plans to take advantage of an amateur like me. Few hours later I would catch him in a big bluff with AT on JT986 board for a 700$ pot and he instantly started calling me names and would stop chatting with me for rest of the night. He got no bluff action from me the rest of the night and my stack just grew. By 8am our table broke and I racked up 2195$ in 3 racks and I felt like the biggest winner there ever was, even got the floor to take pics of me posing by my stack it felt great. Ran into traffic going home, went to local grocery store carefully picked up a cheap 5$ wrap for breakfast before going home and crashing at 11am.
TLDR: Got into live poker as a challenge, a year ago, almost decided to quit before catching a big break. As a result of said break, studied the game further, improved my game, and saw encouraging results. Caught another break which is the gold mine that is Friday night live poker and story of my first night there.

FunFair - An In-Depth Analysis (Updated April 25th)

FunFair has been up to a lot of things, and thus, the post made a few months ago is quite outdated. I’ve written this just to keep the subreddit updated, and to have a nicely formatted post full of information regarding FunFair for both newcomers and “veterans”. This post will be updated more often than not, and when the time comes for a new one again, it shall be written! Cheers.

What is FunFair?

FunFair is a decentralized gaming technology platform which uses the Ethereum blockchain, smart contracts, and proprietary state channels (Fate Channels) to deliver casino solutions with state of the art games that are fast, fun, and fair.
FunFair is not a casino. Instead, FunFair will license its technology out to casino operators. Being a casino carries with it risks and burdens stemming from statutory and regulatory hurdles. Being a licensing entity instead, provides legal safeguards and will enable a more widely used platform.

Why was FunFair created?

There are many costs, headaches, and complications with online casinos. Briefly, they are the fees associated with operations (servers, infrastructure, large employee-base, fraudulent activity investigations, chargebacks) etc. Attracting players and gaining their trust comes afterwards, which is another issue within itself. There is a blatant trust issue with conventional online gaming that FunFair aims to diminish, while creating a seamless experience for both operator and player.

The Market.

Online gambling is a large market: Currently over 47.1 billion dollars in market volume and projected to continue increasing quite exponentially. FunFair is also attempting to capture a new market of casino operators and players that aren’t currently factored into this estimate.

The Team.

The FunFair team consists of 40+ developers, industry executives, and professionals. They have one of the largest teams in cryptocurrency. Feel free to check them out on their website: https://funfair.io/how-it-works/our-team/
Notably, the first five employee profiles presented on the website are:
Jez San OBE, Founder, CEO
Jez San is a British technology entrepreneur and investor whose pioneering work in the field of real time 3D computer graphics led to being awarded the OBE for services to the computer games industry.
Jez founded Argonaut Software in his teens and designed the first chip used to power 3D games including multi-million-selling Star Fox, Harry Potter and Croc. He also founded 3D online poker room PKR and microprocessor developer Arc International.
Since 2013 Jez has been an active investor in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector. His investments include Google’s DeepMind and online cryptocurrency exchange Kraken.
Jeremy Longley, Founder, CTO
Over 15 years’ experience managing technology teams – from the development of advanced video-game software through to the deployment and operation of enterprise-scale infrastructure.
Oliver Hopton, Founder, Developer
Oliver Hopton is an experience developer and team lead with over 15 years experience building gaming products. He spent 10 years working at online poker room PKR as Software Development Manager working on a huge variety of administration tools and integrations with 3rd party gaming content and providers. Heavily involved in technical compliance for gaming license applications in Guernsey, the UK, France, Italy and Denmark.
He then spent 18 months as CTO of EveryFan, responsible for architecting and building a UK facing sports betting product.
David Greyling, COO
David has more than 20 years’ experience in E-Commerce related organisations. In his role as COO, David is responsible for leading the business development, strategy, operations, finance and corporate functions.
With extensive leadership experience in Digital marketing and E-commerce international companies, David specialises in leading business integration and transformation programmes.
Prior to his current position David was Director of International for William Hill PLC, reporting to the board on market expansion, regulation and strategic change management programs.
Stefan Kovach, Business Strategy and Marketing Consultant
Stef is an industry executive with with a wealth of experience, having headed up the marketing functions of both PokerStars and bwin.party - two of the biggest brands in online gambling.

Career Opportunities

Further, FunFair is looking to expand – and fast. They expect to have a team of 50+ people in the not-so-distant future, as they are currently hiring developers, business and marketing professionals, and so forth. So, if you’re looking for an opportunity to showcase your expertise in these fields, try your shot at securing a position within the company! (https://www.funfair.io/careers) The FunFair team’s base of operations is in London, UK.
Some of the positions currently offered in the United Kingdom, England, London:

C#/Javascript Developer
C#/Javascript Developer - Domain
C#/Javascript Developer - KYC
Community Manager
Senior Business Analyst
UI Developer
Senior Developer - Typescript
VP Product Owner

When did they start the project?

Technically, FunFair started on June 22nd, 2017, because all FUN tokens that will ever exist were created on this day. However, the idea, technology, and product were being developed before the ICO started.

What have they accomplished to date?

FunFair have accomplished a lot since their inception- consistently updating development, business operations, and hiring many new staff. From Sponsoring DevCon 3, receiving awards from the Malta Gaming Awards, excellent showcase updates, and launching their product to the gaming industry at the International Casino Exhibition which boasted over 30,000 industry attendees, they have been on track to their public release. With the release of the closed beta right around the corner, the future is bright for FunFair.

Ok, so what is the technology? What are they developing?

FunFair is building their decentralized platform and protocol on top of Ethereum’s blockchain. FunFair is developing the game technology, and their proprietary, advanced state channel technology which they call Fate Channels. The platform that FunFair has created and continues to develop, will allow anyone to run a casino in just a few clicks, allow third party developers to distribute and integrate their own games to a new, global audience, while creating the ultimate casino experience for end users.
Fate Channels are FunFair’s custom, proprietary version of State Channels. They are superior technology to current State Channels, as they are what support the communication during game sessions between player and casino, while executing entire game logic and random number generation off-chain. They provide a fast, low cost method for RNG, starting game sessions, ending them, and settling with smart contracts on the blockchain. There is only one gas fee needed to start the game session, which solves scalability issues with platforms like Ethereum.
For an in-depth explanation that you won’t be disappointed in reading, please refer to the technical white paper here: https://funfair.io/wp-content/uploads/FunFair-Technical-White-Paper.pdf

What really happens in the Fate Channels?

FunFair’s random number generation is executed within the Fate Channel, and is a commit/reveal scheme that makes it provably fair. There are also a hash chain to prove that the overall sequence is indeed fair.
A player enters a FunFair-powered casino with some FUN tokens in their wallet, and then both the casino and player send FUN tokens from each of their personal wallets into a smart contract which then holds the FUN in escrow via the Fate Channels (off-chain) until the player cashes out/closes the channel.
The player and casino swap random seeds that they have generated locally, and these are then hashed numerous times by both parties in private. The sequence of hashes are stored locally by each party. There could be thousands of hashes, which become the random numbers, and are passed one by one, in reverse order, by the casino to the player and vice versa when the game needs randomness. Since the hashes are in reverse order, a new hash will always hash into the previous one, so that it can be verified that it’s the correct value of the next hash. The first hash is committed in the state channel on the blockchain as it was opened, and this is what will be used later to reveal that the random number generation was correct.
The position that a ball lands on in a roulette spin, for example, is computed this way. The two hashes provided by both player and casino are combined into a random number that neither side could have predicted. It’s provably fair because because it can be shown that they come from the same hash chain in the correct sequence, and it can be shown after the game session is over, using the reveal to show the seed was in fact, committed to the blockchain in advance of the games played.
The random number generation scheme works extremely fast, and is not dependent and waiting on the blockchain for verification every time, yet it is provably fair in both randomness and sequence. It is easy to detect cheating by either side (for instance, the random number generations would go out of sequence). The security of the hash chain is what makes the randomness unpredictable. If it is possible to reverse a hash, you could predict the random number generation. FunFair uses SHA-3 for hash generation, which has not been reversed yet, and is likely to last in strength for some decades.

The platform.

FunFair presents its casino operators and players with a gaming opportunity never seen before:

Decentralized, essentially serverless
Provably fair, blockchain-based
Trust-less outcomes that can be witnessed on verifiable smart contracts
Instant cashouts - casinos do not hold your funds
Accessible through web browser on desktop or mobile
Fun games with an exciting user interface
Casinos feel safer, with no risk of fraudulent charge-backs from player credit cards
Fast gameplay conducted through Fate Channels – the team’s custom version of State Channels.
FunFair is preparing for mass adoption and has a working solution for Ethereum network congestion.

The games.

FunFair is pursuing a full suite of traditional casino games:

Blackjack
Baccarat
Craps
Roulette
Slot machines (many variations)
Let It Ride
Caribbean Stud
5-card Poker
3-card Poker
Many more to come

You can test all of these games, right now at https://showcase.funfair.io . Some are currently testable on the Ethereum test networks.
Regarding mobile functionality: A number of mobile dapp browsers are being built (ciphestatus) – FunFair support these. Their games are built with technology that works in mobile browsers.
FunFair is one of the only projects in the cryptocurrency space that has a working product.

FunFair’s vision for the future- an updated roadmap for 2018:

FunFair’s writeup of the updated roadmap can be found here: https://funfair.io/updated-funfair-roadmap-explained/
The roadmap can be found here: https://funfair.io/latest/roadmap/

Q1: In January, the team submitted to the UK Gambling Commission their application for a Remote Gambling Software License.
February 6th-8th,

Official launch into the gaming industry at the ICE (International Casino Exhibition).

Read FunFair’s written re-cap here: https://funfair.io/ice-2018-round/

Watch FunFair’s video round up here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEjC3_5Q5jA

March 8th-10th,

EthCC Conference.

FunFair CEO Jez San gives a presentation on FunFair platform and protocol to Ethereum community in Paris.

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irpu2iHDiK0

Q2 Goals:

Live Beta on main network.

Announce and start integration of first 3rd party games developer.

Further license applications.

If Beta proves successful, look to go live with first operator.

Continue to attract & retain blockchain talent.

Continue to build FunFair brand.

April 2018

V1 product enhancements and initial stage of Go-Live readiness.

Announce 3rd party game development partner.

Further production quality games released.

May 2018

V1 completes and closed Beta launches

May 15th - 17th,

G2E Asia - launch FunFair brand to Asian gaming market

Website: https://www.g2easia.com/

May 16th - 17th
Consensus and Token Summit in New York

Networking and updating community

Website: http://tokensummit.com/

May 23rd - 24th
Disruptive Online Gambling conference (London)

Exposure to UK gambling industry

Website: http://www.arena-international.com/gambling/

Q3 Goals:

Continue roll out of early operators

Learn, iterate and improve partner integration process

Drive further product improvements & platform features

Q4 and beyond:

Go live with first 3rd party games content

Continue to build FunFair brand

Some Information Regarding Casino Operators:

Casino operators will save significant money on hardware, chargebacks, and operational headcount. The number of physical servers required is reduced as gameplay executes in immutable smart contracts deployed to the ethereum network.
An operator will, at all times, require a reserve of FUN tokens to ensure they are able to accept bets, and cover their liabilities. If, after a period of time, they wish to convert some of their FUN token balance they will have a number of market exchanges which are capable of facilitating this type of transaction.
FunFair is working on the many customization options right now and up until release. You will definitely be able to customize the look and feel. You can add your own graphics, logos, colour schemes, etc. You will also be able to choose which kinds of games are offered, and how they will be laid out.
FunFair fully supports KYC. They’ve built their own KYC technology that’s crypto-friendly. FunFair’s tech will allow each operator to have their own policies on who they exclude and whether they require KYC/AML etc.
A reminder, FunFair isn’t an operator, it’s a technology that operators use, and some will be in countries where they need to do KYC/AML and some will be in countries where they don’t. FunFair’s tech works for all cases and will support the full strength KYC if that operator requires it.
Lots of information can also be found on the website. Here are some excellent links:

Regarding casino operators: https://funfair.io/use-cases/casinos/
Regarding players: https://funfair.io/use-cases/players/
Regarding game developers: https://funfair.io/use-cases/developers/
Regarding affiliates: https://funfair.io/use-cases/affiliates/

The Past, Present, and Future of FunFair..

FunFair has been consistently networking, and the team have been continually attending blockchain conferences and events. From launching their product to the gaming industry at the International Casino Exhibition in early February, launching their product to the Asian market at G2E Asia, and just recently announcing their industry first game development partner; Spike Games, FunFair is advancing very well, on track and ready for industry disruption.
For questions that you may have think I've missed, please refer to this updated FAQ on the FunFair website: https://funfair.io/frequently-asked-questions/#the-fun-token
TL;DR - Read^{the^{whole^thing}}

Revolution in online poker is about to happen

Many of us enjoy playing poker with the friends, colleagues or just random people as it is quite a fun way to spend time. However, there are actually people that make their living out of poker.
There are quite many sources that describe the earnings of the poker players and their net worth, but so far it seems that the top 5 richest poker players (whose income is mostly driven by the winnings) are:

5 – Joe Hachem ($11.8 million)

4 – Sam Trickett ($16.6 million)

3 – Erik Seidel ($17.2 million)

2 – Antonio Esfandiari ($22.9 million)

1 – Phil Ivey ($100 million)

Even though the biggest tournaments are happening offline, the largest volumes are dealt in various online poker rooms. It may be quite challenging to become a poker millionaire without winning one of the main poker events, yet there are many people that can afford luxurious life simply by playing a few dozens of hands each day. However, today we will not be looking at the poker players, but we are going to focus on the poker industry from the insider’s perspective and see how quickly it can be changed in the future.
A quick overview
Throughout the history, online poker industry has been dominated by the PokerStars brand, and the only company that was competing with it was FullTilt poker. However, in mid 2011 FullTilt went bankrupt and was acquired by PokerStars. Since then, its leadership has been disputed.
Today, there are many online casino brands launching their own poker rooms, yet when combined they are taking a much smaller market share than PokerStars. However, there are quite some drastic changes coming up and it does seem that even PokerStars may not be ready.
Europe represents the largest market for online poker and recently there were some regulations passed regarding online gambling. While those laws actually make internet gambling legal, they come with such harsh requirements that many companies have decided to simply skip these markets and focus on their operations in the other countries.
Apart from that, the technology behind the online poker rooms has been lacking some development when it is compared against the other companies in the iGaming sector or other sectors of Information Technology.
Today we are going to explain you how Cash Poker Pro can tackle all of these issues and become a successful competitor of PokerStars in the very near future. But before we begin, let us quickly tell you what Cash Poker Pro is all about.
Cash Poker Pro in a nutshell
Cash Poker Pro (or CPP for short) is an online poker room that is available through various instant messengers (such as Whatsapp, Telegram, WeChat etc) and also as a web app. It lets people play poker online using a decentralised technology. Yes, we are talking blockchain here.
Considering the CPP’s technology, it can operate in any possible location as long as at least one of the supporter messenger apps is available there. Besides that, CPP deliver a great level of transparency and trust, as there is absolutely no way the company can manipulate the results of the game. Finally, CPP can provide great gaming experience at the fraction of the costs when compared to any other alternative on the market. Now let’s take a look at how exactly it will revolutionise the world of online poker.
Available anywhere
Cash Poker Pro is designed to be available at any possible device, at any possible location, and at any possible jurisdiction. These are the main reasons that landed Cash Poker Pro a title of the best October’s ICO at ForexNewsNow rating.
There are a few challenges faced by the iOS and Android developers. First of all, it is pretty damn hard to design the apps that deliver identical experience. In most of the cases, one of the OS will receive an inferior version. Secondly, the hardware itself is quite an issue. This is why it is so common to see unsupported apps in the Play Market or App Store when using a dated device. Finally, it is still up to Google and Apple to allow the listing of your application, and in most of the cases, you will not be allowed to bring in a gambling app into the Store.
Cash Poker Pro eliminates this barrier by letting the players participate in the game via the messaging apps. Such apps are available in every country, no matter whether online poker is allowed or prohibited there. Besides that, all of the smart-type of the devices support the messaging apps as those are the core component.
Considering that CPP is decentralised, it can operate in all of the dark, grey and regulated areas likewise.
Keen to invest?
Not only CPP is great for the players, it is also amazing for the possible investors. Unlike all of the old fashioned companies, CPP gives you an opportunity to become a partial owner of the poker room by purchasing the tokens during Cash Poker Pro ICO. It is based on Ethereum and it has already been backed by 400,000 USD of investments during the pre-ICO stage. Its goal is to raise 30,000,000 USD by selling 60,000,000 tokens under the symbol CASH.

[Story / Long Read ] The tale of how I've progressed as a poker player across 2014 and what lessons you can learn from me.

Hi /Poker, I'd like to share how I've progressed as a player across this year, some of my achievements and what I've learnt. My intention in writing is to provide an insight into how I've learnt some key lessons by the means of my experiences. Some may regard this post as a brag, however I do not wish it to come across as so, instead I wish it to inspire some people to take my advice, which I have learnt the hard way. I've included a 'to lazy; didn't read' (TL;DR) at the end of this for those who want to skip the history and see the main points.
To give a bit of background, I first learnt poker when I was 11 years old, playing at home games and sitting beside my dad while he played online till I was ~15. Between 15-17 I played a ton of freerolls on every poker site available. I won ~$600 ish across these two years, my biggest bink being 1st / 9,000 on a PartyPoker $1250 freeroll back in the days for $250ish. I learnt from playing play money and lots of freeroll tournaments as well as through extensive reading at the time. I never played real money till I was 18 in fear of my winnings being invalidated due to my age. At 18 I grinded 2NL, 19 5NL. At 20, I became (and still am) president of the poker society at my university. At the start of my first year I invested in HM2 and played various Multi-table-tournaments of $1-3 buyins and 3-tabled 5nl (static, not zoom). I grew a $0 bankroll on Stars to ~$750 helped by a 2nd place bink (/10K) in the Hot $0.50 for $500 odd from 2011-2013, never depositing, by the end of 2013.
This year, 2014, has been a vast turning point in my poker career. Throughout January I became versed in grinding online, learning to multitable efficiently. I did so by playing heads-up-hyper $3.50s and $7.00s, playing about 1,200 3.50s (~4%ROI) and 600 7s (~3.5%ROI) [I would post results but I don't have them on this computer].
In February I won a freeroll tournament in my local casino (Rainbow, Bristol, UK) for a seat in their £220 Masters tournament (£25K GTD) later that month. During the three weeks I had to prepare for this tournament, I spent hours and hours slaving over MTT strategy, reading books etc. On the first day of the event I was kind of shocked on how bad the players were, at the time this tournament was huge in respect to my lowly bankroll and I believed players that spent £220 to enter this tournament would be far, far better given that £220 for me was a small fortune as I only had £40 a week to live off each week at Uni (I hadn't truly played live in a casino till this point). I managed to survive day 1, win 3 flips on day 2 and get to the final table. On the final table, the players were still awful, all were asking to deal 8-ways or something stupid, I was one of two players that said no. It ended up getting down to 4-way and I held another flip, knocking someone out and becoming the chip leader. Soon after, I looked at the screen displaying the tournament statistics on my left and saw I was guaranteed £4,970, at this point I realised that this was serious... The next three hands, I screwed up, the money and pressure got to me, each hand I played absolutely awfully and by the third, I was bust. At the time, I took the 3rd place money and banked it straight away, not even splashing out on anything. I didn't play poker for the next two months, I was heartbroken that I was unable to take the £9.5k first prize down, mulling over my mistakes and depressed that the three weeks of solid effort I put in was thrown out the window when it really mattered with only 3 people left when the money (and glory) was right there in front of me.
Come the start of May (through to June), I picked up playing on the odd Sunday as a break from revising for exams. I managed to bink a $1+R ($30K GTD) for 4th for $2K, losing when it was 5-way. I lost a 20.8bb stack to a 21bb chipleader (AKs < KQo) when the other three had 3bb, 5bb and 6bb on the final table. This win surprisingly rekindled some of the sadness and pessimism I had for poker at the time as I realised that my results are going to be subject to a huge amount variance and that I can't always blame myself for being unable to always come first or show a profit. I realised that if I wanted to succeed, I needed to put in more volume, effort and give great diligence to overcome variance in the longterm.
Throughout July, I started looking at 2+2, /poker and looking at training videos to learn to improve. I took someone's advice to start grinding satellites into bigger tournaments on PokerStars since they appeared to have a great ROI if played correctly. At the start I had great success, binking the odd $215 ticket for a Sunday Major (Million, Supersonic etc.). However, I started running terribly. I knew enough about push/fold ranges at the time to expect to obtain a healthy ROI on these satellites/satty MTTs. However the run bad didn't stop. Day-by-day I would lose. I was running horrendously below EV (I was just under breakeven, source: HM2 on old computer). I started to play tournaments outside my bankroll to compensate these losses and of course this backfired, leaving my bankroll I grinded from absolutely nothing – to short of $2.25k – to ruin. (See my Sharkscope: from the 2k hand mark to the 4,430 one ; http://www.sharkscope.com/#Player-Statistics//networks/PokerStars/players/Fitzyferret )
At the start of August I realised that I needed to take some space from online and review the fundamentals: bank roll management (BRM), tilt and coping under pressure. I was jobless and had the summer to kill before I went back to University so I decided to take £2K I had from my February bink and attempt to make a living playing at my local casino playing £1 / 1. Things started going well, and better, to excellent. I devoted each day in my holiday playing and learning. I took notes of hands, posted a few online and asked others to evaluate my play. I even started making a journal of the live regulars I used to play against. This comprehensive: playing, evaluating, learning, and incorporating back into play seemed to work! I learnt BRM in many ways, through learning basic budgeting, tracking my results, enforcing stop-losses during play etc. I coped with tilt/pressure by initially just writing out my distress, looking back on it the next day, seeing what the common trends were. For example I found that it was 'card dead-ness' was a particular problem for me during live play, I managed to overcome this through adopted a 'coping strategy'. This was where I imagined I was in the shoes of a particular individual in a hand, thought about their range, other villains' ranges, their tells and the dynamic between opponents. This not only helped me overcome my boredom but improved my own exploitative play against them in future hands and hand reading. At the end of this 5 days a week for 11 weeks schedule, I made £6,680 profit between Aug-Sep. I learnt a ton about live play and essentially started to crush it [ http://tinypic.com/zoge9c/8 ] [ http://tinypic.com/200y6uu/8 ]
/chipporn : [ http://tinypic.com/iw0uft/8 ] [ http://tinypic.com/346kvuh/8 ]
September to November, I've been only dabbling and putting in only small sessions (~8 hours/week average) since I am back at University. I've converted to playing full-ring (9-handed) cash to fit my experience I had during my time at the casino. I 4-table zoom with occasionally 2-6 static tables on the side as well. I deposited for the first time, $250 on Stars, started with 5nl again, then 10nl, then 25nl. I've recently been taking shots at 50nl, but will try and get some more hands in first before I feel confident in doing so. Here's my cash graph as it stands: [ http://tinypic.com/2a0hnid/8 ]. I attribute my fairly rapid acceleration in these stakes to my thorough reviewing process (and running good). Once a week, I look at all my hands in the past week where I have lost the greatest amount of bigblinds (top 5%), and make the judgement “was the reason I lost a completely unavoidable cooler?”.

YES → I don't worry about it (happens only about 20% of the time surprisingly)
NO → This is a fault of my own play, and thus I write down the improvements I need to make

I make great emphasis on whether it was completely unavoidable as I find that you can get away from so called 'coolers' fairly easily if you have enough experience of certain spots. I collect these improvements, make trends of what I have observed and eventually overcome these problems by overcoming them through observation.
At the start of November to now, I have grown fonder of single-table tournaments and am playing these more so than cash now. I haven't got the greatest of sample on them so far, but it's looking pretty promising [ http://tinypic.com/2rwm690/8 ]. As well, on Sundays I now grind the satellites into the larger tournaments as the field is often exceptionally soft. (Hand 4,431 onwards on sharkscope).
So looking towards 2015, I have great expectations for my poker 'career'. I might not have much time between now and until I hand in my dissertation to play much, though I still plan to play a few hours a week at least online and a few large live MTTs (£100-250) in the mean time. I hope to reach 50nl by July at least. I will also commit to being a more active member in poker communities. In this upcoming summer I also hope to play live cash again for 2 months as a 'job' to boost my bankroll again, getting a part-time job as well to have definite income on the side. After this time, I will make a decision to pursue poker further or not, dependent on whether I perceive that I can make enough to rely on it as an income. I'm hesitant to say I have plans on going “pro”, but rather I would say I would like to see myself at least becoming “semi-professional”.
Earnings from 1st January to 5th December 2014:

Live: + £12,750 from ~ originally a £500 live roll ($20K from $780 )
Online: + £1,700 from ~ originally £0, but now a £250 online roll ( $2650 from $390)

TL;DR - Lessons I've learnt that you should to in order to become a better player.

Continual learning is absolutely critical to improve
Being within a community of fellow players which are all wanting to impove will better your chances in doing so. However being an active member of this community will greatly multiply your chances.
Taking breaks for an indefinite amount of time to overcome tilt, pressure and to learn should not be looked down upon, rather it should be encouraged.
Volume, volume, volume. At the start I underestimated how much input you need to give to see results. You need to realise that in order to see consistency you need to put in at minimum, tens of thousands hands to observe results (or tens of thousands of MTTs/less for SnGs). Don't assume that a big win instantly means you're better than everyone else!
Keeping personal notes is advisory, if not fundamental
Focus on your biggest leaks in your game
Never forget it requires a burning passion for the game and commitment in order to obtain success

I'd like so say thanks to cwlrs for recommending /poker, suggesting I should write this and being someone I can attribute some of my success to.
Thanks for reading, especially if you managed all of it,
Fitzyferret

[uncensored-r/CryptoCurrency] FunFair - An in-depth analysis.

The following post by Commissar_ is being replicated because some comments within the post(but not the post itself) have been openly removed.
The original post can be found(in censored form) at this link:
np.reddit.com/ CryptoCurrency/comments/7o2gtl
The original post's content was as follows:

FunFair. An in-depth analysis.
Intro.
FunFair is a decentralised gaming technology platform which uses the Ethereum blockchain, smart contracts, and proprietary state channels to deliver casino solutions with games that are fun, fast and fair.
FunFair is not a casino. Instead, FunFair will license its technology out to casino operators. This differentiates FunFair from the competition in the blockchain gambling sphere – being a casino carries with it risks and burdens stemming from statutory and regulatory hurdles. Being a licensing entity instead, provides legal safeguards and will enable a more widely used platform.
I’d like to touch on the many aspects of FunFair that makes it an extremely promising and undervalued project. However, I won’t be making any price projections. As always, do your own research. In this case, I’ve done a lot of it for you.
The market.
Online gambling is a large market: currently over 47.1 billion dollars, and projected to continue increasing. https://www.statista.com/statistics/270728/market-volume-of-online-gaming-worldwide/. However, this is not to say that the price of the FUN token should be compared to the market cap of internet gambling. FUN is not a measure of casino capital/wealth, it's an entirely new animal.
The problem and the solution.
Trust. Traditional online casinos rely on you trusting them to be fair. The chance of red coming up on roulette is 48.65%. How do you know your traditional online casino is giving you those odds? You don’t – you need to trust them. Most online casinos are incorporated in island microstates. Do those nations have online casino regulators? Do they possess the willingness, manpower, and expertise to audit online casinos?
FunFair puts the gambling on the blockchain so it’s trustless – you know you have a 48.65% chance of having red come up. It’s fair.
The team.
FunFair has their ground covered and bases loaded. With their team of 30+ professionals they are way ahead of the competition. You may know CEO Jez San, OBE, from his career track: Argonaut Games (founder), Star Fox (programmer), and PKR Poker (founder). He has been in the gaming industry for more than two decades, and has built valuable relationships along the way. Constantly engaging with the FunFair community through Telegram, Discord, and Reddit, it seems as though he leaves no engaging question unanswered. Alongside Jez as COO is David Greyling (https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgreyling/), former International Director of William Hill, one of the world’s leading betting and gaming companies and one of the most trusted brands in the industry. (https://www.williamhillplc.com/about/). Recently, Stefan Kovach joined the team - Stef is an industry executive with a wealth of experience, having headed up the marketing functions of both PokerStars and bwin.party – two of the biggest brands in online gambling.
Further, FunFair is looking to expand – and fast. They expect to have a team of 50+ people in the not-so-distant future, as they are currently hiring business and marketing professionals. So, if you’re looking for an opportunity to showcase your expertise in these fields, try your shot at securing a position within the company! (https://www.funfair.io/careers) The FunFair team’s base of operations is in London, UK.
The platform.
FunFair presents its casino operators and players with a gaming opportunity never seen before:

Decentralized, serverless

Provably fair, blockchain-based

Trust-less outcomes that can be witnessed on verifiable smart contracts

Instant cashouts – FunFair does not hold your funds

Accessible through web browser on desktop or mobile

Fun games with an exciting user interface

Casinos feel safer, with no risk of fraudulent charge-backs from player credit cards.

Fast gameplay conducted through Fate Channels – the team’s custom version of State Channels. The Fate Channels developed by the FunFair team are superior technology. In very basic terms, Fate Channels are what supports the communication during a game session between the player and the casino. They provide a fast, low cost method for random number generation, starting gaming sessions, ending them and settling with smart contracts on the blockchain. This allows for secure, deterministic, fair gameplay. There is only one gas fee needed to start the game session. For an in-depth explanation that you won’t be disappointed in reading, please refer the the technical white paper here: https://funfair.io/wp-content/uploads/FunFair-Technical-White-Paper.pdf FunFair is preparing for mass adoption and has a working solution for Ethereum network congestion. Fate Channels.

For more discussion both technical and company related, have a look at both whitepapers: https://funfair.io/explore/whitepapers/
The games.
FunFair is pursuing a full suite of traditional casino games:

Blackjack

Baccarat

Craps

Roulette

Slot machines (various types)

Let It Ride

Caribbean Stud

5-card Poker

3-card Poker

And more to come

You can test all of these games right now at https://showcase.funfair.io/. Some are currently testable on the Ethereum testnet.
FunFair is one of the only projects in the cryptocurrency space that has a working product. They are set to launch in the beginning of Q2 of 2018.
What have they been up to? Are they on track?
Consistently ahead of schedule and on top of their roadmap in many ways, FunFair was a sponsor of DevCon 3 and had one of the most engaged-with booth setups. They connected and networked positively with many developers at the event. https://twitter.com/FunFairTech/status/926113230677856256
They’ve recently received the Malta iGaming award for “Best ICO of 2017” which was determined by a nomination panel of 5 industry experts, and a panel of 32 judges with many years of combined experience in gaming. The awards were hosted during Malta Gaming Week; a very large event attended by many business executives, authorities, and even local government: http://maltagamingweek.com/
They’ve been constantly updating their product showcase, and adhere to all feedback received by community members. Their new showcase was designed to “be able to cope with adding more games easily by the team + third parties, and also to be configurable by casino operators.” Some of their product update can be found here: https://funfair.io/awards-latest-product-update/
How does the token (FUN) derive value?
FunFair does not issue dividends or offer profit sharing – FunFair doesn't have much to share. The technology will be licensed to casino operators for almost nothing – itself a major draw for existing casino operators to adopt the FunFair platform. With a fixed supply, the value in FUN is derived from scarcity of the token in the marketplace. Scarcity comes from four sources:

Casinos holding FUN as part of their bankroll (described more below);

Players holding FUN and not cashing it out immediately after they play;

Speculators (investors) holding FUN anticipating it will increase in value;

Token burn: a small amount of FUN will be slowly destroyed over time. The exact amount has not been announced, though it will likely be quite small.

That first scarcity factor will be key, as casinos will need extremely large bankrolls of FUN to operate a large casino with multiple games, high max bets, and a large number of seats (allowing numerous people to play concurrently).
Right now, price has been set purely by speculators. As casinos open down the road, scarcity will ramp up --- Casinos will need to buy FUN, which will lead to players buying FUN which will lead to greater popularity of the platform causing more speculators/investors to buy FUN. Scarcity and utility are what drives price.
Plans for the future & the latest company update.
FunFair will be attending the ICE Totally Gaming Conference on February 6-8 (https://www.icetotallygaming.com/exhibitors/funfair-casino). This is a major business-to-business conference for the online gambling industry. The team plans to have the developmental side of the FunFair project done in time for the conference.
Tech completion in February will allow for the advancement in operations and partnerships, which will lead to live FunFair-licensed casinos going live in Q2 2018.
FunFair is in the process of acquiring their Remote Gambling Software License from the UK, which will enable them to license their technology to existing and regulated casino operators.
FunFair has steady operational costs covered for the entire year, as well as an 85,000 ETH reserve/storage for any and all upcoming costs.
An Updated Roadmap (December 20th, 2017)
(available here: https://funfair.io/company-update-december-2017/)

Q1:
In January we will be submitting to the UK Gambling Commission our application for a Remote Gambling Software License.
In February we will be attending ICE Gaming, an international B2B conferencing event, where we will be introducing the FunFair brand to the gaming industry.
By the end of March V1 of the FunFair blockchain casino nears completion. This release will allow for real FUN to be used on the Main Ethereum Network for the first time.
Q2:
Operator On-Boarding: Deploying the FunFair casin...

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Funfair Overview and Update. There is Hope!