This is embarrassing
In keeping with my recent tradition of posting old emails, I’ll put a few more out there. I feel really stupid looking back on these, but when I was just getting started, I was just trying to make things happen and this is the kind of stuff that you’ve gotta do.
So way back in the summer of 2004 I thought that online poker video training sites would be a terrific idea. Little did I know how big the idea would get, but I was convinced I could make a decent amount from the whole thing if I got the right pros to get involved. So, somehow, I came to the conclusion that ZeeJustin and GambleAB would be good people to approach. This is an email that I sent to Justin on Jan 6th, 2005.
Justin,
I saw your name mentioned in this article http://www.onlineshark.com/pokerarticles.html and I thought I should approach you with an idea that I have. First, a bit about myself. [snip UBER boring part about myself ... I was really dumb]
On to the idea… I think poker teaching tools are a bit limited. Books are good for an introduction and watching tournaments on TV can offer a few clues, but I don’t know of any instructional material dealing with making real decisions in the world of online poker. So I think the poker world needs to see how a good player plays with the hole cards being shown… — I think you’re a good candidate to be
that player.I don’t want to go into too much detail about the rest of my ideas for fear of wasting both of our time, but if you’re interested, write back and we can discuss further. I think it could be a great business opportunity and a way to revolutionize poker teaching tools.
Thanks,
Nat Arem
Philadelphia, PA
So yea, I was just reaching out to a few players. I didn’t get a response, but I sent a followup on Jan 12, 2005:
Justin,
Congrats on your finish at the PCA… I followed the tourney through the blog.
Anyway, I am in discussions with GambleAB (you may know him from Stars or RGP) to try out this idea. In addition, NotACmptr and ItsButta (both of whom played in the Bahamas) may be getting involved in this project. Essentially, it revolves around recording tournaments/cash games with screen capture software (from your point of view — if you are worried about people learning how you specifically play, it is easy to edit your identity out), editing the tournament/cash games, adding your audio commentary track and putting the final result on a DVD. We would then sell the DVDs through a website. The technology has been tested and I think it would produce a compelling product for the masses who are interested in learning how to win at poker.
If you are not interested, please let me know so I can stop contacting you.
Nat Arem
BTW, my AIM is mallwyd if you want to contact me there.
Just FYI, that is not my AIM address anymore. I haven’t used that for years. I’m actually not even sure why I wrote that stuff about the DVD thing. I am almost certain that I was planning on making a CardRunners-like video website with the footage and possibly offering DVDs in addition (FWIW, I still think good poker DVDs are a monster market waiting to be tapped — the current selection is really crappy). I do specifically remember making a test DVD and thinking that it worked pretty well, but that it was hard to decipher the hole cards without an HDTV. I didn’t want something that wouldn’t work well on a low-res TV. So I’m actually not sure why I said it was tested successfully when I specifically remember it looking terrible on a low-res TV. Maybe this was when I was in the stage when I wanted to do DVD-ROMs (which did work very well)? I’m really not sure.
Anyway, I didn’t get a response from Justin. But, luckily enough for me, I was also talking to GambleAB about the same idea and he’d won a seat to the first-ever WSOP Circuit event in Atlantic City, which ran from Jan 16th to Jan 18th in 2005. He lived in North Carolina at the time and I lived in Philadelphia, so him being in Atlantic City was a good opportunity for us to meet up and talk about it. I drove out to AC on Saturday January 15th with a few friends from high school (we were going down to play poker anyway) and I met up with Aaron and attempted to demonstrate the idea. I think he agreed it was a good idea and he was interested, but he was having technical problems doing the videos. Eventually the idea kind of died out because PSCrew.com was launched about a month after this whole thing and I didn’t have time to focus on the video site. But then Aaron ended up making the final table (see results here) and I went down to AC to see the FT on Jan 18th. You can actually see me in the background on a picture on this page. Here’s the pic if you don’t feel like clicking through:
I’m on the right in the gray shirt. Erick Lindgren (the 2nd place finisher) is on the left in the black hat. The whole experience really got me hooked on poker permanently. While there, I met the guy who has come to be known as FTPDoug and even though I haven’t seen him since, we still communicate regularly via AIM/email and he’s been a big help to me many times during my time in the poker industry.
I also no longer hold a grudge against Justin for not responding to my emails. (Just kidding, I never cared much… you can’t when you’re reaching out to other people and, realistically, they don’t have any obligation to respond or help you out).
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Ha, I love that I was mentioned in that 2nd email, back when I was actually good at poker. It’s amazing what some hard work and studying can do.