GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 26 - October 2013

GPWA AFFILIATE INTERVIEW SERIES “If the GWPA had a heads-up SNG forum, I’d probably be moderating it.” When did you launch your site? Early 2009. What makes HUSNG unique in the world of poker strategy sites? Our main focus is on the heads-up sit and go variant and we’re the only full-scale site that does this (news, premium video packs, free videos, forums, interviews, community actions, eBook, software and more). I’m the wrong guy to ask, but if you look around, the quality is a major unique positive of the site as well. Which feature of your site is most popu- lar with your players? Do you get a lot of takers for the coaching offers? Our most popular feature is our videos. From our hundreds of free videos (300k+ views on YouTube and counting) to our premium video packs (over 1,000 videos to date), videos are what made us popular when we launched and videos have continued to drive success. Coaching is popular, but the coaching offers on our site are from the contributing coaches and 100 percent of the income goes to the coaches, in a di- rect way. It’s a major benefit contributing to our site. Why do you think heads-up poker has become such a popular form of online poker? Is heads-up easier or harder to beat than 6-max or a full ring game? While other games continue to decline (mostly due to geographical regulatory issues, but also structural flaws primarily related to game selection), heads-up sit and gos have thrived because they offer fast, consistent action. Hyper turbos have changed the game; players can hop into a game at any buy-in level, get an opponent immediately and engage in a fast-paced, low-edge game. It works out great be- cause that low edge is appealing to casual players (they win a higher percentage of games), and because the games are only two to three minutes on average, the pro- fessional’s small edge adds up to a very high hourly rate. With so many poker strategy sites out there, what does it take to be a leader in that regard? We attacked what was a major gap in the market at the time and built deep relationships with coaches and directly with the community. Back in 2007-2008, when I purchased the domain www.huSNG.com and started developing the idea, major training sites were by and large using non-HUSNG pros to do their videos. Many of their coaches were losing players in HUSNGs. Basically, nobody respected HUSNGs, and SNGs in general didn’t get a lot of respect either. Over the years, as many cash game and MTT players hopped into HUSNGs and got their butts handed to them (not that it doesn’t work the oth- er way too) by those “donks” did play- ers then start respecting the pros in our field a bit more. Guys like Ike Haxton and Olivier Busquet are now among the most respected players in the world. How did you become involved in the industry? I ran an asphalt industry busi- ness. In Chicago, that was seasonal, so I had winters off. A buddy who grinded freerolls into penny stakes into a few grand told me I should play poker and recommended HUSNGs. I lost a bit at first, maybe $100 or so at the $5 level. Six months later I moved up to the $100 level following proper bankroll management. The discussion forums on the Two Plus Two poker forums (2p2) and the people I met there were a big part of my learn- ing so much. I already worked for myself and I wasn’t dreaming of getting rich by playing nosebleeds, so the poker profes- sional lifestyle didn’t appeal to me as much. However, I felt there was a gap in the educational market, and the next win- ter I really pushed to develop the domain I had bought. I worked through a list of po- tential partners and found three very good players/coaches who appealed to the com- munity in different ways. We launched in February 2009. How long did it take for your site to start earning money? Our investment (with three other partners) was not as deep monetarily as you would think starting out. We recovered it within two or three months. I’m a firm believer in making things work and not letting artificial bar- riers get in the way. The facts were, we had four players with combinations of visibility and success in the HUSNG com- munity involved from day one, dedicated to making videos of a quality that nobody else was doing, and we had a lot of organic success (blogs, 2p2 community, foreign communities). Our only initial advertis- ing was Sharkscope player icons and that was incredibly successful for us starting out. So costs were recouped pretty fast; we just didn’t get risky or focus more on making a major production out of things. Don’t get me wrong – we made many, many mistakes along the way and still do, but not spending unnecessary amounts of money was an area that we excelled in. If RYAN HUSNG Age: 27 Hometown: Chicago Living in: Denver Favorite Food: Bone-in ribeye (rare/med. rare, charred crust), salmon sashimi Must Read Book: Business: Rework , by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson; Fiction: The Lands of Ice and Fire series, by George R.R. Martin Sites: huSNG.com sitngogrinders.com nashequilbrium.com GPWA Affiliate Interview Series