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Stars Pocker Money

November 9, 2008

It is said that timing is everything... and then some. Mike didn't know it at the time, but he was on an adventure that would open the eyes of the entire stars pocker money world. When he arrived in India, he was met by Ruth's business partner, a very pleasant gentleman named Anurag. When they arrived in Hyberadad, Anurag introduced Mike to a five-member team of young computer experts who were going to develop the pocker website. One of the first questions Mike asked them was, "Do any of you play pocker?" No hands went up. Mike said, "Well, that makes us even as I don't know anything about computers." A list of about ten domain names were presented to Mike, as he was asked to select the one he thought the name of the sight should be. He stopped right away, saying, "I love this one -- Partypocker.com!" He went on to say, "Partypocker has a nice ring to it and I see a lot of marketing potential with that name!"

A short discussion ensued and they decided to go along with Mike's choice. Partypocker.com would be the name of this new site. Mike was astonished at how hard these computer kids worked. Their work ethic was amazing. They put in 18- to 20-hour days on a regular basis. Quite often they might catch a few hours sleep curled up on a cement floor. With this kind of dedication and work ethic, Mike really felt they had a great chance to succeed with their new website. After working with the software development team for a few months in India, Mike then flew to the Dominican Republic, where the customer support team was located. Mike was to train them about pocker. The CEO of the company, a truly brilliant guy named Vikrant Bhargava, was located in the Domincan Republic and Mike was very impressed with him. The first thing Vikrant said to Mike was, "Okay, we've got software, now how do we get players to the site?"

The company was not only counting on Mike's expertise in pocker, but relying on him to come up with promotions and marketing ideas that no other site had put forth. Mike felt that Partypocker.com had to come out big-time to catch the attention of the pocker world... thus, the Partypocker Million concept was born! Mike came through with what turned out to be a brilliant idea, and pocker players loved it! For $22 a pocker player could win a seat in a big partypocker tournament hosted on a luxurious cruise ship that would guarantee a $1,000,000 first-place prize! (This was quite an idea and a big gamble for a company to take, considering they didn't have one customer yet.)

Mike presented the idea to his good friend, Linda Johnson, who with her partners Jan Fisher and Mark Tenner owned Card Player Cruises. Mike made a presentation to Card Player Cruises to become partners with pocker.com in this venture and host the partypocker tournament on a Card Player cruise. At the end of his presentation, Mike looked at Mark and asked, "So what do you think?" Mark said, "Mike this idea is genius... I don't see how it can miss!" Partypocker.com launched its site in August 2001, nine months after Mike signed on, with Partypocker Million qualifying tournaments.

And as they say, the rest is history. Kathy Liebert won the first PPM in March of 2002, collecting the $1,000,000 first-place prize. In 2003, the winner was Howard Lederer. Here's an interesting tidbit that most people don't know: The first year of the PPM, Howard Lederer had entered the PPM partypocker tournament but wasn't allowed to board the ship with his wife because she was too far pregnant. (Cruise ships don't allow third-term pregnant women on board.) Howard was disappointed because he wanted to play, but wouldn't board the ship if his wife couldn't go. That Howard won the second PPM was truly poetic justice after he and his wife were left at the dock on the first one. Stay tuned for Part 4 of Mike's story, as we will take a look at how Steve Lipscomb and the World Pocker Tour entered the picture. You'll also learn how Partypocker.com became the #1 pocker site in the world, reaching unimaginable heights of success, and eventually going public on the London Stock Exchange, with a capitalization of eight billion dollars!