2004 Neverwin Poker Hat Contest

After lurking around NWP on a regular basis for over three years, I’ve decided to finally say something. It’s nothing I particularly wish to express, and there’s absolutely no motivation behind me telling the following story other than I hope that at least one of you finds it entertaining.

Some brief history: I discovered NWP in early 2004. I used to watch neverwin and Dan Druff play high-limit hold’em on Poker Stars every now and then, and when I found out that they had a new website, I wanted to show my support by signing up for an account. Once on NWP, I learned that micon was running the show, and I was happy to see that because I remembered playing some games with him on Stars. The point is, NWP seemed like a cool underground place (at the time) to follow some up-and-coming players from Stars, and I was happy to be a part of it, albeit a small one.

I originally signed up on the day that Micon had put together a 2004 WCOOP contest on NWP in which contestants had to guess how many players would register for the main event. The winner was to receive a NWP hat, and at the time it was probably the only item offered in the NWP store. I had no reason to sign up previously because I was happy to just lurk (I don’t post on any forum due to time constraints), but I wanted a NWP hat so I created an account.

About the hat: I believe it was something like $19.99 in the NWP store, and it was easy to buy of course, but for some reason I just didn’t want to. It meant more to me to “earn” it and I would have been happy to wear it and talk about NWP while playing in the nearby tournaments in Reno, etc. Gifts are more special to me than things money can buy, and kind of like a sponsorship, wearing someone else’s poker gear appealed to me, especially a site that I endorse. As I said, NWP was growing on me and I thought it would be cool to support a poker site with a lot of upside, in my opinion, so I took a stab at guessing the turnout for the WCOOP ME.

My prediction was extremely close. There were 843 players that year… I believe I posted a guess of 831. It was between 800-843 is all I remember for sure. Aside from being so close, I was also the only one who bothered to post a guess. At the risk of sounding foolish, I was excited to see that I won. I can’t explain the excitement… it’s a hat for christsakes… but I really believe that, at the time, I was amped to receive something from Micon personally.

I posted my guess on a Sunday. I didn’t receive word about winning the hat for a few days, so I wrote to Bryan on Saturday. Here’s what I wrote:

"hi bryan,

it looks like i won the hat contest you held on neverwin's poker site? could you reply either way? I appreciate it, thanks."

Bryan immediately responded the next day (Sunday) with this:

"you won!

The hat will me mailed shortly!"

I figured that was the end of it. Two weeks went by and no hat, so I sent him this:

"hi bryan,

it's been a couple of weeks and i haven't received a hat yet. i totally wanted one, but if the contest was fake, please just tell me. i'd like to continue to support the site. thank you."

Again, Bryan immediately responded, this time the same day. Here’s the message I received:

"I know I've already told you this, but I promise I'll put it in the mail soon. I have again forgot to send the hat. The contest was not fake, and I again appologize for the delay. The hat will certainly be mailed tomorrow (Monday)"

I figured that was the end of it. Two YEARS went by and still no hat. I decided to inquire one last time about the hat that somehow never got to me. This is what I wrote:

"wattup icon,

congrats on your wsop run. way to avoid the donk down with 68 players to go. i'm very happy for you. you may not recall, but two years ago (to the day, almost) you ran a contest for the wcoop (the email thread is below). i think i was the only one to enter, but i would have won anyway (i was extremely close to the estimate). anyway, i was excited about winning a hat because i liked the website a lot (this was two years ago, btw - it's gotten even better, congrats on that as well). i understand you must have been busy at the time and forgot to send it. that's no problem, i still support your site and link it to my blog, etc. i visit the site daily, though i don't post. the truth is, i don't have much time to be too involved in websites, but I support the ones i like. i'd consider myself a loyal supporter of nwp. i'm wondering if you could send me some nwp gear to pimp. i'm 27, i'm a pretty good player i think, and i'm well liked in my circle. i'd be more than happy to visibly support the site. if you're able to send me some gear, i'd very much appreciate it and would consider the contest thing over. by "gear," i guess i mean whatever you can spare... a shirt maybe, a hat, a visor... whatever. i'm a size xxl (6'2, 290lbs). again, i'd appreciate it. i'll include my address at the bottom. oh, and one more thing. can i get an autographed picture of u, dustin, and druff? would make a great conversation piece on my poker room wall. if so, i'd like it addressed to me, derek. i hope i'm not asking for too much. anything u decide to send, i'll be grateful for. thanks and best wishes in the ME."

It wasn’t my intention at all, but I practically had Micon’s balls in my mouth on this one. It’s a little embarrassing to post that e-mail because the perception will be, I assume, that I’m some sort of star-struck “poker fan”. It’s true that I’m a fan of the game and have been since I bought TJ Cloutier’s books in 2000, but I never look for handouts. I thought the requests were fair, and I also thought it would be beneficial on a low exposure level for NWP because although I’m unknown in the poker world, I play a lot in the local tournaments (at least I used to... not as much these days). Basically, I wanted to come away with a good experience on NWP, and this would have closed the deal for me.

Bryan yet again replied quickly – the same day – with this:

"lol, remind me in 1 week and I'll send youa ton of shit."

Unfortunately I lost the final couple of e-mails, but here’s a recap of what happened from this point. I wrote to him about two weeks later rather than the following week to give him enough time to get home from the WSOP and all that. I was very concerned about swamping him with e-mails despite this being a two year old issue. I remember telling him that a Micon donkey wand would be the sickest thing ever if he was going to send me stuff, and that was that. A lot of time went by without any response, several months at least. I noticed he made an instructional online poker video, so I put out one final idea for making me feel better about not getting the hat in 2004: ship me a code for the video and it’s all good. I figured that way he doesn’t have to physically mail me anything, and other than time and effort, this thing didn’t cost him anything, so shouldn’t that be okay? After another no response, I wrote for the final time telling him not to worry about it anymore and that if I saw him at a tournament, I’d introduce myself, shake his hand and all is good. That was about a year ago.

This was a long story, I’m sorry. I was encouraged to tell it, and I was happy to oblige. Personally, I think Bryan is a nice guy who is probably like me in many ways: means well, good intentions, hardly any time to do anything, procrastinator. I obviously still visit this site frequently, and I appreciate all the great posts here, they make me laugh more often than not. I love the photoshop jobs people concoct (my all-time favorites are “Why Not?” and “Hels Yourself”) and I wish everyone the best in all that you do.