I was still a young guy when my girlfriend and I got an offer to start working as dealers at Concord Card Casino, Europe's biggest poker room. Living in Amsterdam, we had never been to Vienna before, and we didn't know much about the poker room, either. After I had been working there for just a couple of nights, I noticed that a tall and slender young man had been watching my tables on numerous occasions. But, quite frankly, I didn't have a clue who he was. After a week or so, he walked up to me and asked, "Young man, do you have any clue who I am?"
"Well, no," I replied. "I have seen you at my tables quite a lot, but I have never seen you play."
"That is for a reason," the tall young man replied. "It is because I am your boss."
Thomas Kremser and I have continued to work in extremely pleasant harmony from that moment on. Six months later, he was kind enough to give me permission to quit my job in order to pursue a career as a professional player – even though he cautioned me that without exception, the dealers before me who had tried the same had all failed.
It is about eight years later, and now that I have moved in a somewhat different direction for a second time with all of my writing activities, we again meet a lot – more than anything because Kremser has moved in a different direction, too. Just before the start of the first season of the EPT, he gave up his job as boss at Concord to become the head of the International Poker Federation, and also the tournament director for almost all major European events. In other words, he became the number one man in Europe when it comes to rules and regulations. We got together at one of these events in Copenhagen, and basically started catching up.
Rolf Slotboom: Everybody knows you as the boss of the Concord Card Casino, Europe's biggest poker room. How did you get that position at such a young age – because you were very young, right?
Thomas Kremser: I had worked as a croupier at Casinos Austria for four years, in the Casino Baden (which still hosts the biggest stud event in Europe, the Poker EM). I quit that job in April 1993 to start developing the idea of the Concord. I had been approached by my former boss to start up this new poker room, and taking into account the many legal problems we were faced with, we knew this was not going to be an easy project, by any means. His offer was that I should start taking care of all technical matters that are part of setting up a poker room in a successful manner. I saw big possibilities there, despite the fact that there also would be an awful lot of risk involved. In addition to that, I also knew that if this project failed, I could never go back to my former job – a job that I had always been very happy with. As it happened, the Concord opened its doors on October 7, 1993, as the first 24-hour poker room, with 40 tables and no fewer than 140 dealers.
RS: This startup of the Concord was probably the first step to the major poker success that we have in Europe right now. Can you tell me the situation in Austria when the Concord got started, and what were the reasons for the success of this poker room?
TK: Well, when it comes to legal issues, the situation back then was not much different from the way it is now. As they still have now, back then, Casinos Austria had the monopoly on casino games – and with casino games, it was meant "games of chance." When looking at the poker action, there were on average just about two tables per night going in all of Austria, one in Vienna and one in Baden. With so little poker action, I thought that once we opened our doors, we would have to teach many new players the complete basics of the game, but as it happened, the vast majority of our customers were in fact quite knowledgeable. It was clear that they had been playing poker for a very long time already – just not in an official poker room. So, after a couple of weeks and a bit of a slow start, business started booming quickly. Within just two months, we had extremely big action, and this boom lasted until about four or five years after the opening.
Having said that, we have never been entirely legal – even though this is how we are often perceived. Right from the start, we were already faced with a lawsuit that questioned our premise that poker is a game of skill, not luck. This proved to be such a complicated matter for the judges that to this very day, this question has not been officially resolved. When things didn't go as well in this trial as the opposition had expected, they pulled another trick. They faced us with a second trial, claiming we would have to pay 25 percent taxes on every pot that was played in our room – obviously something that would break our business. After a case that had been dragging on and on for many years, we finally won. This meant other poker rooms could now open, too – and they did. In fact, the opening of all these new cardrooms in and around Vienna actually led to us losing a large chunk of our player base, simply because the players now had many more options available to them than just us and the state casino.
All in all, as you can see, moving into a casino that easily could have been closed down on the very first day of its operation was a real gamble we took. In fact, just as had happened to you when you decided to quit the Concord, all of my colleagues told me that I was just crazy to give up such a great job – for what by many was considered to be a dicey proposition at best. But I was looking for the challenge of something new, and was not afraid to jump into the cold water. I can only be thankful that I have trusted my judgment, and that things have worked out so well.
As to the success of this room, it was truly amazing that all of these players who before had never played in the state casino would now en masse come to us. I guess they all could just feel the buzz and didn't want to miss out on this new concept we had introduced: an all-day, all-night poker room for normal people, for both pros and beginners, not too expensive, and with all different kinds of games and limits.
RS: Despite the fact that you were still very young when you were in charge of the Concord, it always struck me that almost without exception, you got lots of respect from basically everyone in the poker world. I have never seen you scream or shout, yet almost everyone at the table sees you as a "natural authority." And whenever you make a decision at the table, no one will even dare to say that just possibly, you could be a bit off – not even in Vienna, where players are known to be quite difficult. Do you agree that you have this natural authority, and if so, how do you think you got it?
TK: The answer to this is probably my way of thinking. I give respect to every human being, no matter the position or the amount of money, and I have found that, fortunately, I get the same kind of respect in return. I've got a lot of experience in what I am doing, and I have always taken my job very seriously, so I guess this is the second reason why I get so much respect: that what I do and say is usually correct. Despite this, I am still known as someone who listens very carefully to both the dealer and the players when making a decision. If it becomes clear that the information I had when making an initial decision was not entirely correct, I am not afraid to say that I was wrong and that the decision will need to be revoked. I am not rigid in anything I do, and my guess is that it is this exact characteristic of me that the players appreciate.
Actually, it is quite possible that in the beginning, I needed to fight a little to get that respect, but after more than 15 years in the poker industry, I seem to get it automatically nowadays. People see me as an authority on poker rules, and know that I will simply continue to give my all so that this perception will not change. Frankly, I want people to think, "Whenever Thomas is involved in a project, it can be trusted." I guess this is one of the reasons why the IPF tournaments in St. Maarten and St. Kitts have been such a success: the fact that the people in charge care for the players, and that our genuine desire is to make these tournaments big, well-structured, and trustworthy.
RS: Having been Concord's boss since the beginning, you decided to give this up to become the CEO of this IPF you just mentioned, and a more or less freelance tournament director for various events around Europe. Why exactly did you quit your position? Did you view these new things as clear alternatives and better options than Concord, or did you simply think it was time for a new challenge?
TK: Well, I guess I just like to be where the action is. I had been at the Concord for 10 years, and even though we had big action three times a year at our festivals, the other 49 weeks of the year, we had just a standard poker room with no obvious highs or lows. While this was still a great job, obviously, I am now at all major events, and I must admit that I like that even better. In addition to that, I just like to take on new things. I don't want my life to get boring, and that is why I am always looking for new challenges. Another factor is that when you work fulltime at one place, you don't get much time off. With all of this traveling that I do nowadays, I know that I will have to work very hard for about a week or so. But I also know that when my wife, Marina, and I get back home, we can relax for one or two weeks – and this is a luxury that we both appreciate a lot.
Now, having said all this, when I made my decision to leave the Concord, I couldn't have imagined things to go this well. With all the developments regarding TV, the Internet, and sponsorship, all events I am involved in now have become much bigger than I had envisioned. So, one could say that my timing has been perfect. On the other hand, I am just proud that I can do my small share in making poker become even more popular than it already is. I try to do this, for instance, by helping to make all tournaments become better-structured and well-run, and I mean all tournaments – both the normal ones and the televised ones.
RS: Regarding these new developments – what do you think of them? Do you view them as 100 percent positive, or do you see some negative points, as well?
TK: Well, Rolf, before online casinos became successful, it was hard for a player or a tournament to get any kind of sponsorship; there were just no companies interested in poker. In the eyes of many corporate businesses, poker had too much of a negative connotation, so they simply did not want to be associated with the game.
Once online poker started, lots of fresh money came into the old poker community. The Internet opened up a whole new potential for players. There was lots of scepticism that the Internet would take away many players from brick-and-mortar cardrooms, but I already saw that the online cardrooms would also create lots of players. So, I view the Internet as a very positive development, and I feel the same about TV. Even though there is indeed some danger that television networks view the show itself as more important than the actual tournament, I have never experienced any problems like this myself. In fact, I have just celebrated the 100th TV show that I was involved in, and I can say that they almost always had very good structures. I stand behind the players' point of view, and the people who hire me know that. In my view, we are talking about poker that is being televised, not a big show that accidentally has some poker in it. To tell you the truth, I actually see a development in televised events that the structures will continue to get better, and this is good for all parties involved. The players will get better value for their money by participating in a more skillful event – while at the same time, the TV viewers will get to see a more interesting product.
RS: A final question. You have been together with Marina for a very long time now. If I am not mistaken, the two of you married in Vegas last year, and none other than Marcel Lüske was your best man there. Can you tell me a little bit about this marriage?
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| Thomas and his wife, Marina |
TK: As you know, Marina has worked in the Concord for many years, too, and she is as much a part of the industry as I am. We didn't want a traditional or conventional wedding, but rather a wedding that reflected the business we are both involved in. We chose to marry at Bellagio during World Series time on June 22, 2005 – June 22 being the date when we had started our relationship eight years ago. Now, in Vegas, one can apply for a wedding license for just $50 or so, in an office that is open 24 hours a day. As it happened, there was a long line of people waiting when we came in; yes, some of them were even dressed up in their wedding gowns already!
Anyway, inasmuch as we couldn't get our entire families to come over, we had a relatively small but great wedding party. We had our own wedding chapel at Bellagio, we arranged a nice dinner at the Venetian, and we drove around Vegas in a superb Hummer limousine that we had hired. We actually made a short stop at the World Series to sign up some friends for the upcoming events. And, yes, my best man was indeed Marcel Lüske, while Gerard Serra from the Gran Casino Barcelona was doing the honours for Marina. It was a great happening and something that both Marina and I will never forget. You know, she is not only my wife, but also my friend, and I can share my thoughts with her on everything, for the simple reason that she is so close to everything that I'm involved in. So yes, one could say that I'm a lucky man – both in my business and in my personal life.
Thomas Kremser (39) is the official tournament director at all EPT events, and the CEO of the International Poker Federation – an organization whose main goal is standardizing all poker rules. He has been involved in many TV tournaments for "Presentable," which include William Hill, Late Night Poker, and various celebrity shows.
He is the man who put Concord Card Casino on the map, the first private casino in his hometown of Vienna, and the one that has turned this city into the semiofficial poker capital of Europe. He also has been the host and organizer of the first (successful) IPF tournaments in St. Maarten and St. Kitts. His wife, Marina, worked with him at the Concord for many years. 
