FAQ
Live the Dream:
Frequently Asked Questions
General FAQ
How do I qualify for the Live the Dream Casting?
There are three ways to earn your seat in Casting:
- Summit Points / Cash Bets Won Race
- Tournament Leaderboard
- Direct Entry
For more information, please go to the How to Qualify section.
Will the country of origin have any influence in the final results of the casting?
Your country of origin will not have any influence on the final result. All scoring at the casting event will be public, and there will always be transparency in how these scores are determined.
Can beginners win this promotion?
Yes, they can. This competition is open to all, from beginners to advanced players. Every type of player can qualify for the direct entries, for as little as $2.
When you put your heart into it, poker is a game you can learn quickly. Throughout qualification, any beginner can definitely improve their game. Don’t forget that we are also awarding points based on live performance at the event and the player’s personality.
Do I have to speak English to be one of the 10 winners?
No, this is not a requirement. Everest Poker has always wanted to offer a product in the native language of its players, so the interviews will be done in your mother tongue. However, having a least some fluency in English is an advantage to you as an Everest Poker spokesperson, because it will be easier for future journalists’ interviews.
You also do not need to write your biographical information or blog posts in English, although it may be beneficial to write blog posts in English, giving more people the chance to read them, which also means there will be an opportunity for more votes!
Prior to Casting, you will be asked to tell us your level in English and we will ask you a few simple questions at the event to evaluate your level.
What happens if the top Summits Points, Cash Bets Won, or Tournament Leaderboard finishers have already qualified for the casting?
If a player finished in the top 5 in the leader board in 2 consecutive weeks we will then take the 6th player, however if a player is in the top 5 for two or more weeks, this will be a considerable plus to their Online Poker Skills score.
What happens if I win my seat to the casting via a direct entry but I have not entered the Live the Dream promotion?
You would need to sign in to the Live the Dream site using your Everest Poker login and password, and opt in to the promotion on the Login page. Once you have opted in, you will then be eligible to participate to the casting and should begin creating your player profile to increase your chances of winning.
What happens after the year?
Who knows? It is impossible to say, but current Team Everest players Steven van Zadelhoff, Kim Wooka and Voitto Rintala all were part of our very first Live the Dream team.
Can I keep the money if I win a tournament?
Yes, but Everest Poker will keep 20% of your winnings. We will reuse this percentage to cover your buy-in to future tournaments.
How can I prepare for the casting?
Casting should be viewed as a job interview. Here are a few suggestions on how you can arrive at casting well prepared.
- Play and practice at EverestPoker.com
- Participate in live games with your friends or join a local poker club
- Imagine you will have to explain your passion for poker to a journalist, think about what you would say.
- How would you talk about yourself and love of the game to members of the Everest Poker team.
- What reasons would you give a journalist for why you play online with Everest Poker?
How are the Online Poker Skills calculated?
Each Live the Dream player will receive an Online Poker Skills score based on the following criteria from the beginning to the end of the online qualification period (September 21 — November 23, 2009).
1. Tournament Leader points — 10 points
This will use the actual Tournament Leaderboard calculator and look at the player’s overall points for the entire promotional period.
2. Tournament Leaderboard Average — 10 points
Each player’s Tournament Leaderboard Average will be calculated from his performance in all scheduled tournaments with a minimum buy-in of $30+3 during the promotion period. This includes, but is not limited to, all Live the Dream Direct Entries, nightly $10,000 Guaranteed, weekly $30,000 and $100,000 Guaranteed as well as direct entries for various live events.
3. Cash Bets Won — 10 points
The goal is to amass the highest average (per 100 hands played) based on Big Bet (BB) or Poker Tracker Big Bet (PTBB), depending on your preferred Hold’em ring game.
In No Limit Hold’em, the Big Bet is defined as double the big blind and is referred to as the Poker Tracker Big Bet (PTBB). For example, if someone plays 100 hands at a $.50/$1 NL table and wins $5, they will earn a 2.5 PTBB ($5 / 2 = 2.5).
When playing Limit Hold’em, you will gain points based on the Big Bet (BB). BB is defined as the second bet amount in Limit Hold 'em. If you play 100 hands of $2/$4 Limit Hold’em and make $8, you have made 2 BB, or twice the amount of the big bet ($4 x 2 = $8).
4. Summit Points Earned — 5 points
The player will be judged upon total Summit Points earned throughout the Live the Dream online qualification period.
Does it matter if I have never played live? How will this factor into my overall evaluation?
During the casting, we will be running live tournaments and cash games in order to evaluate how our players play live. Please note — winning these tournaments will not be the only thing we will examining. We will also be looking at the way you play some hands, deal with stress, table attitude, etc.
What will happen after the casting?
The 10 selected players will sign their contract and meet with Everest Poker management to determine their schedule be for the next year.
Who will be the judges?
We cannot reveal at this time the names of the judges, but it will be a mix of those on the Everest Poker team, journalists and other significant figures on the international poker scene.
When and where will the casting run?
Casting will run in Vienna in January 2010. For more information, please visit the Casting page.
Creating My Profile
How do I create a profile?
Once you have opted in to Live the Dream by checking the opt-in box when you first log in to the Live the Dream site by using your Everest Poker login name and password, you will be taken to your editable profile page.
All fields are editable on your profile page. When you first access your profile after opting in to Live the Dream, you will need to enter in the requested information and upload a main profile photo in order for your profile to go live. It is crucial that your profile needs to be live as soon as possible, as this is the only way other players can rate your profile. To save your profile, click on the Save Profile button at the bottom of your profile page.
How can I edit my profile?
Once you get your profile up and running, you can always go back and edit it. Whenever you want to edit your main profile page, or add new content to your photo, video or blog sections, click the Edit My Profile button located at the top of your profile page once you have logged in to the Live the Dream site.
Players are encouraged to regularly enter new content onto their page. Keeping your profile fresh and relevant will not only give Everest Poker a sense of who you are before casting, it will also help increase your Popular Voting score, as other players will be rating your profile based on the content you post to your page.
What does the Translate Profile button do?
By clicking on the Translate Profile button on a player’s profile page, the player’s profile page will be translated into your native language. This gives players the opportunity to gain votes for anyone and everyone in the Everest Poker community, regardless of native language.
While all profile information, such as anything biographical and your past poker experience, will be translated, content on the photo, video and blog pages will only be viewable in the language they have been written in. As mentioned above, it may be beneficial to write blog posts in English, giving more people the chance to read them, but what language to blog in is a decision left entirely up to you.
How do I post a video to my profile?
Videos cannot be uploaded directly to your profile. All videos must be hosted on external video-hosting sites, such as YouTube, for example.
You will be able to post a video from the following sites to your profile by simply entering the URL into the entry box under the Video section of your profile page and clicking on the Add Video button.
- YouTube
- Yahoo! Video
- Revver
- Vimeo
- Vmix
- Blip.tv
- iFilm
- MySpace Video
- MetaCafe
- uStream
If you wish to delete a video from your profile, you will just need to click on Delete Video while in the Edit My Profile mode.
How do I create a photo album?
On your Live the Dream profile, you are given four photo galleries where you can upload a maximum of 10 photos in each. These photo galleries are your place to showcase your life — you can be playing poker, on vacation, anything at all. As long as none of the content is obscene or offensive, and you are the owner of the photos, we encourage you to make these photo galleries as personalized as possible.
To get started, click on one of the four photo gallery placeholders located in the Photo section of your profile page. Click on the Browse button to select your chosen photo from your computer. Once you have found it, hit the Upload button to upload your photo to the gallery and your profile.
All image files must be received in an approved format (jpg, jpeg) and may not exceed 522 KB.
How can I get more votes and get the word out to friends, family and even strangers?
Here are some suggestions to get your profile noticed by those in the Everest Poker community and beyond.
- Bookmarking & Linksharing — The bookmark button at the bottom of your profile page allows you to share the content of any page, be it your profile, blog entry or video, with users of many different social networking sites including: Del.icio.us, Digg, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Furl, StumbleUpon and many more. Simply hover over the bookmark button, select your preferred linksharing site and follow the directions to sign in and post your item.
- Email your profile — Send an email to your friends from your personal email service and ask them to vote for you. Attach a link to your profile page.
Joining the Live the Dream discussion on Twitter
Want to join the discussion? It’s easy.
- Include #EPDREAM as part of each Tweet
- Tweets with the #EPDREAM hashtag will automatically be included in the discussion feed
- Follow the discussion right here or visit http://search.twitter.com and enter #EPDREAM
- Follow us on Twitter @Everest_Poker and receive the latest Everest Poker and Live the Dream news
