PokerListings Meets up With Owner of Unibet Deepstack Open – Alex Henry

The live poker industry nowadays is full of events, organised in a huge amount of countries all across the world. Before 2010, such events could be counted on the fingers on just one hand, but now players have the opportunity to play poker in the low- and mid-stakes in countries such as the USA, Australia, the UK, and Brazil. For European poker, one of the main brands causing the real poker boom for such events has been Deepstack Open (DSO). We spoke with Alex Henry, General Manager and Owner of the brand.

Alex Henry has been involved in the poker industry for decades, mostly by being one of the main faces of the Deepstack Open brand, nowadays known as Unibet Deepstack Open. Guided by his passion for poker, and his experience of being the live events manager of the online poker room Chillipoker, the Deepstack Open appeared in the poker world. Mainly due to that last experience at Chilipoker, the CEO – Alex Dreyfus – connected with him to collaborate on other projects.

As a passionate poker player myself, I know that from 2006 till 2010, there weren’t many offers available for players with a rather smaller budget across Europe. Of course, you had local events such as the daily tournaments, but a real live poker event which lasted for several days or even a full week? Not as per my understanding at least, besides perhaps a couple of random singular events here and there.

In the name of PokerListings, I spoke to Alex Henry and asked him several questions to firstly, get to know him better as a person. And above all, to try and figure out what one of Europe’s most recognized live poker events has got in store for us in 2024!

Melvin, PokerListings: Hi Henry! It is a pleasure speaking to you, how have you been?

Alex Henry: ‘’Hello Melvin, good day to you. It is alright, thank you very much. It has been busy as usual for us, with Season 15 of the Unibet Deepstack Open Cup (Jan 25-28) kicking off at Portomaso Casino in St. Julians, Malta.’’

Melvin, PokerListings: I have been following your event a lot throughout the years and by being involved in the industry of live events myself, I can imagine all the work that goes into it. Now, it’s the 15^th season already for you, what can you tell us about the Unibet Deepstack Open in the past?

Alex Henry: ‘’As you know, I started working with Alex Dreyfus on this while being at Chilipoker.com. There were not many events available around the 500 euro mark, unlike the 1,000 euro events. For such events, my observation was that there were no proper tournament structures. And from there the idea started to grow for the Deepstack Open. We bought the brand, connected with other online partners, and mainly focused on the French market in the beginning.’’

Melvin, PokerListings: You’ve outgrown the French market quite swiftly, with events going on in different markets as well. Can you tell us a bit about what’s in store for us poker players in 2024?

Alex Henry: ‘’Yes, we are focusing more on other markets as well now. And for the upcoming period we have for example now the event in Malta, and then next week we have an event in Lichtenstein together with The HendonMob. UDSO Aix-en-Provence is also on the calendar again of course, and after that, we have events planned in locations such as Barcelona, San Remo, and Marrakech. Followed by big events such as in Annecy, and Paris in November.’’

Melvin, PokerListings: What interests me in such events is what makes one event unique compared to another. There are so many available nowadays, that it’s becoming impossible to try and take all the stops in your agenda as a player.

Alex Henry: ‘’I think every live event is trying to be innovative in their own way. We at DSO, have got a solid reputation to rely on, being one of the older tours of the calendar. For example, back in the day, we came with the ‘day 1c turbo’ opening flight, to try and gather more entries for a tournament.

One of our main focus points is the payouts. At all times, we aim to pay out 13 to 15 per cent of the players, whereas before it was like 10 per cent. Besides that, the balance of the payouts is very important which results in our event winner never getting an extraordinary huge piece of the cake.

I want to reward the players for the event, that they have shown appreciation by attending the event. There does not need to be a huge first prize, as it results in for example a 5-way deal anyhow. It’s less motivating in my perspective to play such an event.

One of the key points for us is as well that the bare minimum cash in an event is always double the initial buy-in, which doesn’t let most players go home unsatisfied, even when they have a min cash.’’

Melvin, PokerListings: You have a collaboration with the Malta Poker Festival as well. Which comes to mind, as an event organiser, what is the goal of the UDSO and for you as a person within the poker industry?

Alex Henry: ‘’I would like to develop the brand more globally, to increase the brand recognition in new territories. The Malta Poker Festival, was a great thing because I live in Malta, and I have known Ivonne Monteleagre already for a long time, as well as the Portomaso Casino. It was a no-brainer, and partnering up with some other stand-alone tours makes it less complicated to offer such big Guarantees.

Just before COVID-19, we had an Asian tour where we had five events in locations such as Vietnam, Taipei, and the Philippines. It’s a whole different ballgame as the market is very different and way bigger. They are very passionate about such events and would love to go back to Asia again, as well as South America.

We also had an event in Johannesburg recently. The place is just amazing, and the turnout is unique and everything. The laws and regulations are very different compared to what we are used to, and the infrastructure, staffing, and all that.. It’s a challenge to run a poker tournament sometimes in the way like we know it.’’

Melvin, PokerListings: Speaking of running a poker tournament- What are key aspects for you before you get everything together?

Alex Henry: ‘’The location and its reachability for example, are there airports nearby? The infrastructure in the city itself, and everything related to the casino. How will it go with staffing? Are there hotels nearby which we can make use of?

It is also important to know what we need to bring ourselves to the location in terms of logistics, and what is the availability of online qualifiers. And there Unibet plays a big part in the name of a sponsor.

There are also certain situations which are deciding. Look for example Barcelona, where we will have a stop this year. It was not clear in terms of taxes and so on, how it would turn out for the players. We didn’t want to bring an event until we were sure about the casino and everything around it. And surely our stop in Barcelona, we hope to see many poker players from across the world attend the event, as well as all the other events of course!’’

The Unibet Deepstack Open (UDSO) is, without a doubt, one of the most comfortable live poker events in Europe. We strongly recommend to whoever has not visited one of their stops yet, to have a look at the 2024 schedule of the UDSO. The locations are well chosen, so even if you want to go for some sightseeing, there are plenty of things to do! If you happen to meet Alex Henry, originally from France, at one of the stops, you know who is responsible for the fine poker structures you can enjoy!