GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 5 - May 2008

53 had put on. The last few pounds are the hardest to get rid of, and God knows I try! If someone were visiting you in Australia, what’s the one place you would definitely take them to see? And why? If they are a poker player we would be on the first plane to Melbourne Crown Casino. They have the best poker games here in Aus- tralia. If they want to see some- thing beautiful I would have to take them down south a bit. The Southern Ocean is amazing, and there are plenty of breath- taking spots in the southwest. If they want to go out to eat, shop and walk around, it would have to be Fremantle. There are some awesome markets there and some great restaurants. If you could have one “super power,” what would it be? And why? To save the planet. I’m not a “hug a tree” freak or any- thing, but I do think we should pay attention to how much wa- ter and energy we use, and try to remember not to use plastic bags, but environmentally safe bags. Save the whales, don’t lit- ter and all that stuff. Assuming you could pick any- one in theworld (alive or dead), who would be sitting at your dream poker table? And why? Stu Unger. I would have loved to have played poker with him. My best friend and old room- mate, Eddie from the USA, was very good friends with him. He taught Eddie how to play gin and they played poker together for years. I’ve heard some wild stories about Stu and would have loved the chance to sit at a poker table with him. And finally, what are three things that nobody knows about you? 1. I had two nicknames grow- ing up, “rabbit” because I used to sing “Little Rabbit Foo Foo” all the time as a kid and “Es- marelda” or “Ezzie” because I was the most uncoordinated child, very ungraceful! 2. I threw up when I was 16 years old after drinking a six- pack of beer, and to this day have not had a beer since. In fact, I drink very rarely, but when I do it’s a vodka with cranberry juice. 3. I played pool from the time I was 12 or so. My mother bought a regulation pool table and I picked up the game quick- ly. She owned a tavern and I learned as a young teenager from a “shark” how to play. I won a state 9-Ball tournament in Kentucky when I was around 16 years old. When I was 21 I was playing in the bars in Ken- tucky and making $50 a night or so betting guys for $5 a game. In the last 15 years I’ve played maybe 10 times. I do miss it. received my first affiliate pay- ment in February of this year! It might have been small, but it was like getting a pat on the back for all the hard work. It was very exciting. Then that payment doubled in March and then doubled again in April. I haven’t made a fortune, but I have made enough to be able to give back to our members, which is what I wanted all along. How did you settle on making a forumthe central part of your business model? How much time does it take to administer the forums? Doing something online was pretty much a given. I love computers and I am cur- rently working on a Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems (IS). I am finally learning all the behind-the-scenes techni- cal jargon that it takes to run a forum. These last few months I have earned a deep respect for our tech guy, Fonzi! He makes it look so easy, but now I am starting to see that it’s not. Administering a forum is a part-time job if you want to do it right. I run one forum and it is time consuming. I can’t imagine running several. The easiest part of managing the forum is getting members to participate in games. We have a network of forums that all sup- port each other and play each other’s games in order to in- crease the numbers. It has been easy to approach these forums about supporting each other’s games. It works out great for everyone in the long run. We have a nice group of mem- bers who visit the forum daily and make posts that others eagerly respond to. We have a great number of members who visit often and do their part to post. Without the great members, we wouldn’t be a successful forum. We are still growing, but the members are making it happen by word of mouth. We currently have a handful of moderators and they all do it voluntarily. They know we are not making big bucks yet, so they do it to help us out. One day I hope to be able to reward them for all their help. You are the co-owner of Maxi- mum Poker League. Who is your co-owner? And how do the two of you divide the site’s responsibilities? My co-own- er is Bill Maxwell (aka Bill- max07). He has actually been running the forum for quite a few years. I just encouraged him to take it a step further. We have just meshed perfectly together as far as the forum goes. He is the most laid-back guy I know. He goes with the flow. If I have a crazy idea he lets me run with it and see how it goes. I couldn’t ask for a greater guy to work with. We divide the poker affiliate links in half. We each deal with our affiliate managers to get leagues and games set up. Do the private tournaments you offer for members gen- erally convert well? Or do you get most of your players through other methods? It is no surprise that when we run freerolls on different sites our membership automatically grows. Of those new members we have a small percentage that actually become active members. A lot of our mem- bers come to us from other fo- rums that we are friends with or are members of. I think we have actually started pulling members due to good ranking on search engines like Google and Yahoo. We also have some members who have been spreading the word, which has been helpful. Sharon Liss | Continued from page 23 GPWA Affiliate Interview Series | GPWA TIMES