About Danny

Game designer, poker math educator, and indie developer building ObosPoker — a multiplayer roguelike poker game.

Experience

I've spent the better part of the last decade designing card-game systems and running poker math experiments. The combination is unusual: most game designers don't go deep into poker theory, and most poker writers don't think about gameplay loops or session economy. I sit at the intersection because both questions interest me equally.

OBOSPoker started in 2025 as a publication project to capture what I've learned from playing live dealer games at scale, studying RNG-vs-physical-fairness trade-offs, and developing my own roguelike card game. Every article on this site is grounded either in primary research from regulators (UK Gambling Commission, Malta Gaming Authority) or in source documentation from major studio operators like Evolution Gaming.

Expertise

Areas I write about regularly:

Poker mathematics — pot odds, expected value, ICM (Independent Chip Model), bubble factor, and the practical decisions that flow from these concepts.
Live casino game design — how dealer-hosted streaming differs mathematically and experientially from RNG-driven online games, with specific attention to RTP differences and operational cost structures.
RNG and RTP analysis — what return-to-player numbers actually mean, how they are audited, and why the same RTP can produce wildly different player experiences depending on game variance.
Roguelike card games — how Balatro, Slay the Spire, and similar games encode strategic depth into compressed run-based structures, and what poker players can learn from them.

What I'm Building

ObosPoker is the multiplayer roguelike poker game I'm developing in parallel with this publication. It uses real Texas Hold'em hand rankings as the core game loop, layers run-based progression on top, and includes ICM-style end-game pressure on bubble play. The publication and the game share the same audience: card-game players who care about the math underneath the mechanics.

If you've ever finished a Balatro run and wondered what a multiplayer version with real poker hands would look like, that is ObosPoker. The publication exists in part because I want the future audience for the game to share a baseline understanding of poker math — not enough to be experts, but enough that the game's design decisions feel earned.

Authoritativeness

Specific projects and engagements:

Indie game development — ObosPoker (multiplayer roguelike poker, in development 2025-present).
Live casino game research — ongoing observational study of mobile live dealer streams across major Tier-1 jurisdictions (UKGC/MGA), tracking RTP variance and operator practices.
Card-game roguelike analysis — comparative play analysis of Balatro, Slay the Spire, Inscryption, Monster Train, and Across the Obelisk.
Editorial work — OBOSPoker (2025-present) covering poker math and live casino education from a developer's perspective.

Editorial Standards & Trust

OBOSPoker has a strict, simple editorial policy:

No real-money affiliate links. I don't earn revenue when readers click through to operators or deposit money. This is the most important guarantee on the site.
No paid placements. Specific operators or providers mentioned in articles are mentioned because they are mathematically or technically relevant, never because anyone paid for the mention.
No email opt-in or marketing capture. Articles end with internal cross-links to other articles or to ObosPoker game info. There are no email signup forms, retargeting pixels for marketing purposes, or growth-hacking funnels.
Sources cited. Every claim that depends on a number (RTP %, house edge, bonus contribution rates, etc.) links to either the regulatory source or the provider's published documentation.
Updated dates visible. Articles show both publication and last-modified dates so readers know what they are reading.

If you find an error or have a question about something I've written, you can reach me through the OBOSPoker mainline channels listed on the homepage.