GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 33 - October 2015

gether in person at a conference or other industry event. What prompted you to join the GPWA? How has it helped you? The GPWA has been an industry staple for years, and I’ve thought membership was important for a long time. I think it reinforces us as a legitimate, productive member of the industry community. What do you like about the industry? I like that there are a lot of different people and companies we can work with, and that they don’t all have the same tired ideas. Sometimes there’s a lull, but in gen- eral, if one company doesn’t like some- thing we’re doing there are plenty of oth- ers who do. If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be and why? I’d like to see affiliates held accountable when they act in ways that damage the industry. Whether that damage is to cred- ibility, liquidity or whatever else, affili- ates are generally only held accountable to very major and direct violations — and even sometimes in those cases a blind eye is turned. Companies that have tried to follow the rules and be good partners to the industry have rarely been rewarded in what’s been a generally cutthroat atmo- sphere for player acquisition. What do your family and friends think of your work as an affiliate? For the most part, they have no idea what any of it means! But most of them think it’s pretty cool that we’ve built a community around poker. Do you gamble online? If so, what do you play? Not anymore — the only sites avail- able to me in Georgia are ones I wouldn’t play on. How long do you give yourself to an- swer e-mail? What e-mail tips can you offer? I’m terrible at e-mail, and I mostly hate it. Sometimes I let weeks pass, which isn’t really defensible. I just don’t like it as a means of conversation. I think it’s way too easy to spit out a bunch of ideas or spend all day going back and forth on e-mail without actually doing anything productive. My best e-mail tip is to spend as little of your day as possible doing it, and to also turn off Twitter and Facebook (and any other distractions) for most of your work day. If you can’t find ways to fill up the time with actual work, you aren’t trying hard enough. I’m not at all saying I’ve followed this advice consis- tently. But I still know it’s the best way to be productive. How do you manage your to-do lists? Do you use any special software to help you out? Pretty simple: I just use Apple Sticky Notes. How much time do you devote to SEO and social networking to drive more traffic to your site? I don’t personally do much of that. What’s the most difficult thing about running your site? Adapting to the times. We have to stay on top of current trends and innovate accordingly. Sometimes that means uncomfortable and speculative in- vestment. But we believe in our site. What’s the best thing about running your site? I love when I’m at a poker event wearing a P5s shirt or hat and someone tells me they are on the site all the time. I love it even more when it happens in a non-poker setting. Recently, my wife and kids were with me at a restaurant at the Mall of Georgia and our waiter was a member of the site. My wife teased me the rest of the day about how proud I looked after the waiter talked about what a great site we had. I just love knowing that we’ve created something people enjoy. What do you do to stay in shape – both physically and mentally? I go to the gym and swim a fair amount and play a lot of tennis. I love tennis and have played my whole life, and I find it to be the perfect combination of competition and fitness. I’m able to brush off a lot of my daytime concerns when I’m on the court. I always feel refreshed later, even when I’m ex- hausted. Nowadays I do a bit less of that because I haven’t had the time lately, but I’ve more than made up for it by spending time with my two sons. I can never stay too stressed out about anything with work when I get to come home to them. They’re the best medicine for just about anything. If someone were visiting you, what’s the one place you’d definitely take them to see? Atlanta’s kind of boring, and it very much depends on the person. But my preference, all else being equal, would be to go to the water park or Six Flags or to see a live sports event. When you need to get as far away from work as possible, where do you go? Tennis is great for that. What’s your favorite vacation spot? Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica. We go of- ten, and it’s hard to beat. Europe is pretty great too, just a lot more expensive and harder to get to. Especially with the kids! What’s your all-time favorite movie? Almost Famous . High Fidelity is a close sec- ond. But I like a lot of movies . . . GPWA AFFILIATE INTERVIEW SERIES 54 GPWA Affiliate Interview Series