GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 4 - April 2008

GPWA TIMES | GPWA Affiliate Interview Series 22 Current hometown: Richmond,Virginia Age: 47 Favorite food: Seafood: Shrimp, lobster, crab One book everyone must read: “ Think and Grow Rich”by Napoleon Hill Favorite quotation: “Frequently, the difference between success and failure is the resolve to stick to your plan long enough to win.”— David Cottrell Sites: Pokerplayerus.com, Superpokerdeal.com INTERVIEWWITH Bruce Eicher | Chips How has the GPWA helped Chips? If you asked him, he could write a book! We understand that you started off in the industry as an online poker player. What drew you to online pok- er? Do you still play regularly? My online experience started before the dreaded UIGEA was passed and my brother (in-law) told me how much fun he was having at Party Poker and Absolute. I did play around with Party as a play money player for a bit but preferred Absolute. I stuck to cash games as I did not have any clue about tournament poker let alone the ever popular freeroll. (now I can’t stand freerolls). Next thing you knew I had the “poker bug” and started do- ing searches for poker sites. Some- how or another I found a site on the ongame network called HoldemPoker. com, this site kept me a long time; I played nowhere else. I even called my brother Ronnie and got him to sign up (hmm, was this the first of my marketing?). Since I also operate a poker forum I still play five or six private tournaments a week but the days of having 4 or more games go- ing at once are long gone. The de- mands on my time do not allow for the multigaming and I am fortunate to play one game start to finish with- out multitasking. The sites I play at usually are Landshark Poker, G2G- Poker, Absolute and Bodog. After you started playing online, you started to participate in forums. What attracted to you to forums? Great question. Back in September 2006, I came across Doyle’s Room back when it was on the Tribeca Network. I was still a freeroller and saw a private game called the Blue Lizard Lounge. I had no idea about forums and message boards but saw you had to go to this Web site to get the password to play. This started the forum bug in me. (Oh joy, now Bruce is infected twice.) I signed up for that game and lo and behold I actually won the tournament. I can still taste how good that felt to me! To this day I am still a member of that forum and play some of their buy-in games and a few freerolls. The great thing about forums is the games are smaller. You form a bond with the members, learn how they play, and it helps you to improve your game. Many times we have ex- changed information with each other on what is wrong with our game. It really helps to have a friend to point out where your holes are as opposed to being called a donkey. What attracted you to the affiliate marketing business? I guess what attracted me to gambling over other possibilities was that I understood the poker market somewhat from be- ing a player. I have always believed that in order to be successful you need product knowledge. I thought about other avenues, but this was after I got involved in the gambling market. I still may diversify into oth- er areas in the future, but right now my focus is on the gambling market. Once I have gone full circle with the gambling market I plan on heading in other directions. I have not settled on one genre yet. You are a retail store manager and have been in the retailing industry for over 30 years.What business les- sons and best practices have you taken from your experiences in the retail industry and applied to your affiliate marketing business? Retail- ing and affiliate marketing are so closely tied in work ethic and values. To be successful in retail you need to have product knowledge, great customer service, a commitment to your customers and a sense of ur- gency. The same is true in affiliate marketing. If you lack these rudi- mentary skills you will not be suc- Continued on page 53