As many people know, NeverWinPoker.com was a website created for the fans of poker across the world. Unlike many websites that take themselves too seriously, NeverWinPoker is a site that encourages the degenerates of the world to assemble and contribute anything that they find relevant. Everything was posted on the site from regular day to day poker news to various gossip and scandal from all over the web. You could even find some porn sprinkled in the forums.

What many people may not know is that the website is now a PokerNews.com owned website. Back in 2007, Tony G negotiated the sale of NeverWinPoker from original founders Dustin Woolf aka Neverwin and Bryan Micon. In 2006, Micon stated that they would never sell NeverWinPoker.com. However, in just a year, Micon had gone through a divorce and some say his entire bankroll. As a result, when Tony G came knocking, they opened the door.

The official terms of the deal were never truly discussed with the general public. As a rule, Tony G likes to keep as low a profile as he can on his business dealing. When the sale was initially announced on NeverWinPoker’s forums, rumors had the price at around $20,000. Although never confirmed, the price was said to be as high as $200,000. Bryan Micon did confirm that the site did sell for more than $20,000, but when asked to give a specific number he said jokingly between “34,000 and 2.9 Million.”

One of the terms of the deal was to give partial ownership to Bryan Micon and Dustin Woolf. Also, partial ownership of the site was given to Todd Witteles aka Dan Druff. Witteles was a contributor on the website from the beginning and initially came to the site as a way to poker fun at Woolf and Micon. His contributions became such a regular and integral part of the site that he was offered a minority share of the site upon reaching a deal.

There were complaints after the sale that Micon and NeverWin “sold out” when they decided to sell their site. In a recent post, Dustin Woolf talked about how that with selling the site, he was looking more at the future of the site than the short term success. To him, it made more sense to have a smaller portion of a very successful company than to own a larger portion and risk having it go under. For someone that likes to brag about “sticking it to the man” and living a “baller” lifestyle, this sounded like excellent thinking on his part. Today, the site is larger and more popular than ever. Chances are that most people had no clue that PokerNews owned the site until they read this article or similar ones on the internet.

Did Micon and Woolf sell out when selling NeverWinPoker? Yes. However, selling out is not a bad thing. It is common in the business world to start up a company and sell it off to another company in exchange for either a payday, partial ownership in a stronger overall company, or both. There are examples all over poker of people that have “sold out” in order to make their lifestyles comfortable and to be able to take care of their families. While it may not be the hip or controversial thing to do, it is the sensible and responsible thing to do.