Finally, I can talk freely about what I’ve been working on for the past half-year. It’s really difficult to keep a secret this big!
So, where did we get our superpowers? I’ll give it to ya straight, Doc. As a timeline.
APRIL 2007
-Chuck (danzasmack) and I go to Monte Carlo for vacation. I barely answer any 3-bet.net support emails while we’re there. I begin to realize that I’m doing the site a disservice – I should either hire people to handle the administrative business, or… something else. Chuck suggests that I get into videos, but at the time I have no interest in walking down that road. We both acknowledge that there is a lot of potential to make the site better, both as is and in the relatively unsaturated industry (at the time, Cardrunners was the only worker at the windmill).
MAY
-I hire Messiah as an administrative intern. With the whirlwind that was the WSOP, he never got to do much work. But he provided invaluable insight into the small stakes No-Limit community.
-I begin looking hard at the competition. What works and what doesn’t. The idea turbines start generating energy. During my research, I stumble across DeucesCracked.com, a small limit Holdem’ video community run by Entity, DeathDonkey and JoeTall. I ask Chuck (as my limidonk advisor) what he knows about them and he describes the three as “legendary posters on 2+2.” He also tells me that their site is new but has been very well received by the LHE community. The word “partnership” enters my business lexicon for perhaps the first time. I email DeucesCracked about a meeting.
-Preliminary meeting with Entity, DeathDonkey and Joe Tall. What strikes me hard is their enthusiasm for their site and their content. They’re very interested in talking and we decide to meet up in Vegas during the WSOP.
JUNE-JULY
-Alexis designs cool-as-fuck 3-bet.net t-shirts that arrive in Vegas. Only 2 dozen made – they say “EVEN LEONARDO HAD A MASTER SPLINTER” across the back.
Top 3 3-bet.net T-shirt Moments (a footnote to the Origin story)
1- Ariel “FoxwoodsFiend AKA DaEvils” Schneller dons one during the 50K Horse Event.
2- Cole “CTS” South sports one under a blazer as the aforementioned FWF loses 100k of his money at high stakes Bellagio blackjack.
3- Jordo plays basketball wearing one up at SUNY Purchase and someone recognizes the site.
-I meet unofficially with Joe, Chris (DeathDonkey) and Entity for the first time for drinks at Delmonico in the Venetian. In a shocking revelation, Entity’s real name is Rob. I order a white russian. What becomes very clear at Delmonico is that all 4 of us are not in this for purely commercial gains – we all have our own, deep-seated reasons for wanting to help people get better at poker. For wanting to teach people. We’re also not sold on the current training methods and agree that there is plenty of room for innovation. A partnership is virtually decided – this time, however, the word merger enters the equation. We decide to think things over and touch base again after I return to NY from the WSOP.
THE HAMMER
-Joe doesn’t know this, but he’s the one who drove the hammer down and finally set things in full motion on my end. He drove me back to la casa de Team Israel from the Venetian – on the way we were bullshitting about all things Boston (he’s a huge Masshole and I went to school there) and poker. And I start telling him about the trouble I’ve been having adjusting to live play and my impatience in the WSOP events. And his eyes light up. I mean fucking ablaze with sunlight. And he smiles and starts telling me about his coaching with Tommy Angelo and educating me about “looking left” – to simplify it as Joe did, there are times when he can look left from UTG and know that he’s the button immediately (meaning by the way people look at their hands, he knows they’re all folding preflop). And we pull up the house and we’re sitting in the car for another 5 or 10 minutes while he finishes this story and I’m being filled with knowledge and I am going to crush!!! that 5k buyin 6handed tournament tomorrow armed with my newfound weapons.
Tomorrow’s WSOP Event Tale (another footnote)
I busted out 5-bet bluffing to Dario Minieri.
I had just sat down at the table and this kid who looked like a Swedish Harry Potter was opening every pot. We’re about 20k deep at the 50/100 level and after a few hands I decide I am going to go all Voldemort on little Harry. So I repop him from early position with K7s, and everyone folds and he makes it 4k or 5k more without much thought. I mean are you kidding me Harry? You’re really going to use Expelliarmus? Avada Kedavra, I’m all-in. Dario tanks. Looks at me. Asks “why’d you go all-in so fast?” in his zany accent. Because I’m bluffing, you donkey. He finally calls and flips KK. KK. After tanking for like 3 minutes. Tough decision, Harry. I flop a gutshot and a flush draw! But evil is not meant to overcome the goodness that was Harry-o Minieri.
But “looking left”! A merger was meant to be.
AUGUST
-I plan to head out to LA for a 4-day set of meetings with Rob, Joe and Chris to complete the 3-bet/DC merger and begin plans for a new site blending personalized coaching and video content.
-Chuck calls me. He unveils the concept of a video series. We meet at the diner downstairs to discuss more and I fall in love with the idea. You’ve heard of brainstorming. This was the Hurricane Katrina of brainstorms. A network of video series. An online poker training network. NBC.com for poker. We could blend poker and creativity and vice versa and create a new medium of poker video content. Now this was something I could get behind. 95k people watched the weed brownies video on YouTube. We were on the verge of something. Chuck and I create a PowerPoint presentation to pitch the idea to the Deuces guys and I travel to LA with Chuck’s promise that if we move forward with this idea, he will quit his posh job as an economist to come work with me. Go Petey!
LA – Chunk and the Secret meetings
-The hotel we stay in in Anaheim is right out of Blade – futuristic and vampiric. It’s also right next to Disneyland. But it gets the job done. I pitch the series model right away and I know it’s well-received when everyone immediately talks on top of each other about things we could do and ways we could implement it and content we can roll out 6 months down the line, 1 year down the line. We spend the next few days working and working and working on anything and everything you might think of that it takes to start a new site. Our target date for launch is sometime before New Year’s. My accountants put me in touch with a lawyer we can meet in Beverly Hills to help us take care of the legal aspects of the merger, as well as the legal docs needed for the creation of our new endeavor.
Yah, that’s my lawyer. A former child actor, he got bored of the truffle shuffle and took to law school. You can’t even recognize that he was Chunk when you meet him, that sly dog.
I fly back to New York. You know what this means – Petey’s going pro!
SEPTEMBER – Introducing… 3-bet Prime!
-We consult various branding firms and hire Aaron Gerdes of Rocket Dog Creative as our branding and business coach. Aaron is a genius and quickly assembles a very skilled and agile development team for us.
-A half dozen or so poker players/coaches are invited out for a weekend in New York to discuss their involvement in “3-bet Prime”, my codename for the new company. They arrive in late September and by the end of the trip we’ve got our team of Executive Producers (series creators): WiltOnTilt, whitelime, FoxwoodsFiend, Vanessa Selbst (fslexcduck), DJ Sensei and sthief (Josh.). Not to mention, of course, myself, Joe, Entity, DeathDonkey and danzasmack. The last night is the most degenerate night of drinking and gambling I’ve ever been a part of – highlights include me laying Ariel $35,000 to win $21,000 on a coinflip (which I won, thank the fucking maker) and Ariel paying me $1k twice to punch me in stomach as hard as he could (no leaning in on my end, only a brief wind-up on his). Luckily despite getting pretty doughy over the summer my old washboard abs decided to help me out at the last moment and I took ‘em like a champ.
-Basecamp is established for all the major players – an online center for idea conceptualization, updates and deadlines. Chuck and I assume the roles of Creative Director and begin to oversee series development and production. Rob becomes our go-to “Head Guy,” for lack of a better term – the crazy glue and scissors that brings everything together. Chris handles the tech side of things while Joe is our link to the live poker world, our idea man and our follow-through guy.
OCTOBER
-A deal is put into place with twoplustwo.com, the leading poker forum on the Internet and that which is responsible for all of our successes as poker players. We will host a DeucesCracked forum and are commissioned to power the Official TwoPlusTwo.com Hand Converter. It’s decided that we will keep the name DeucesCracked for the new site. DeucesCracked.com. I like the sound of that.
-On Halloween I dress up as a chili pepper. Emil is grapes.
NOVEMBER
-All of us toil night and day to get the new DeucesCracked up and running. Taylor (of Cardrunners) is curious about what I’ve been up to. I tell Ezra (their marketing director and a good friend of ours) that we bought a racecar with 3-bet.net decals. Our launch date, incredibly, is only pushed back once.
-I hire OP Digital’s lead designer, Jordan DeVries (who created the 3-bet.net cartoons) to create a teaser flash video for I HEART DUCKS, our viral marketing campaign. You can view the teaser video here and a thread about the marketing campaign here.
DECEMBER
-I HEART DUCKS is unleashed on the online poker community. 3-bet.net is live for the last time. Astute observers find iheartducks.com and emilisawake.com and solve our puzzles. At its height, ~500 people are playing the game. Even more are watching the endgame – a 15 min clip of FoxwoodsFiend and I analyzing a heads-up 300/600NL session against Tie53.
-I drink a fuckload of coffee and sugar-free Red Bull. Blog development is underway for our Executive Producers. DANGERLION is born.
-The finishing touches are put on the new DeucesCracked.com. Executive Producers complete their Season One series. Emil wakes up.
JANUARY 2008
- We are open for business. I hope you enjoy what we’ve cooked up.
SPECIAL THANKS: (a final footnote)
to Rob Cole (Entity), for being our crazy glue and scissors, every fucking day of this crazy thing. And for teaching me more about ninja business stuff (and my MacBook Pro) than I could have learned anywhere else.
to Chris (DeathDonkey) for creating an unbelievable hand converter and for rivaling my OCD in list creation and organization.
to Joe for being a zany, zany man.
to Aaron G, for marching us to the endzone.
to Lee Finkel and OP Digital, for continuing to hook me up with amazing work.
to Russ, my accountant, for helping us with all that stuff I don’t like to think about.
to Jordo – you’re a better sounding board than you realize.
to Sabeeh Rehman, for the coffee.
to everyone who knew our secrets, and kept them!
to Aaron W (WiltOnTilt) for being my poker buddy, asking the tough questions, and creating a series that I think will actually improve my game.
to Vanessa, for teaching me to checkraise the river.
to Josh (sthief), for all the pot and use of his apartment.
to Dan (DJ Sensei), for puking in my trashcan and not on my floor.
to Ariel (FWF), for stomach punches and chinese poker.
to Emil aka whitelime, for finally waking up.
and of course, to Petey, for trusting me enough to take the plunge. And all the bananas.
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