What If We Started a Poker Business?

Save for Later

Six years ago today I was sitting in the exact same office I am sitting in now, working on Tournament Poker Edge projects just as I am now and, possibly, drinking cold beer just like I am now. There was, however, one big difference; Tournament Poker Edge had exactly ZERO members. We were 5 hours away from “turning the website on” and frankly, I had no idea when (or IF for that matter) the first person would sign up. We had spent the previous six months or so developing a business model, building a website, setting up the actual business, opening bank accounts, laying a marketing foundation and a million other things you don’t realize has to happen to start a business. We had double and triple checked everything. We were ready to go. At midnight we would officially be open for business.

Diego (RonFezBuddy) and I had met on 2+2 a year or so earlier. We had very similar backgrounds and life situations and we both had a love for tournament poker. Not long after we first met, we would be part of a group of MTT players that wanted to find a “less hostile” place to talk strategy. Unable to find anything, we decided instead to create our own. A private forum called LOLNiceSqueeze was born. At some point, LOLNiceSqueeze decided we should all meet up in Atlantic City for some live poker. This was the first time I met Diego in person. I’m not sure if it was on that trip or later, but at some point we got to discussing an idea. What if we started a poker business?

Diego and I both had solid business backgrounds. Him a bit more technical, which would come in handy later because he built the entire first version of the TPE website from scratch. My background was in marketing, which would also come in handy, because we were going to need to somehow get people to sign up for this website we were about to create.

We tossed around a bunch of business ideas. Every once in a while I still look for the original brainstorm list just to see what else we had come up with, but I have not been able to locate it to this day. In the end though we decided on an MTT training community. I think there were two main reasons we went that route. First, we wanted a place to hang out with others who loved poker as much as we did. And second, we were members of training sites and sometimes you had to wait weeks for the latest cash game series to end so you could get another MTT video series. So screw it, we made our own!

So, we worked our asses off for months. We brought in some great business partners and instructors, including Casey Jarzabek who is obviously still part of TPE today (Marc and Tim, the other two TPE owners, would come on board later). We did everything we could think to do to set Tournament Poker Edge up for success. We had created a pretty damn cool place to build our community. Only we still had that one big problem. It’s not much of a community if there are no people in it!

So, on April 16th we decided we would launch that evening at midnight. And so we did.

And we waited.

I have no memory, to be honest, of how long it took to get our first sign up, but I don’t think it was long. Maybe a few minutes. I do however remember exactly how good it felt! With that first member, we officially had a community. A small one, but a community none the less. I didn’t sleep that night. I might not have slept the next night either. It was way too much fun watching our little project come to life.

A lot has changed since then.  In fact, almost exactly one year later something called “Black Friday” would happen. It almost destroyed us. But, we were still young and nimble. So we made the changes needed to survive. One thing has stayed constant for me though. I still smile and get a cool feeling in my stomach every time I get a notification of a new member. Our members have become the foundation of something much bigger than we could have ever imagined it being. They are the reason that this is so damn much fun to do.

So, as midnight approaches and we prepare for another amazing year, I wanted to take this opportunity to say “thank you”. Tournament Poker Edge is yours. We just get the pleasure making sure it runs as smoothly as possible! So again, thank you for letting us be a part of your community. I hope I get a chance to thank every one of you in person some day.

Cheers!

KB