It’s Been Ten Years

Lately there has been some publicity with Chris Moneymaker as it is the tenth anniversary of his historic win. While reading an article about Moneymaker, it made me realize that it’s been ten years since the release of my first book, Internet Texas Hold’em. That book was released in July 2003. My website by the same name was also launched that month. Little did I know how my life was about to change.

I wrote Internet Texas Hold’em while living in New Zealand, where I was playing full-time online poker. I had started playing at Planet Poker in December 1999. Eventually, I quit my day job and moved to New Zealand in 2001 with the plan of paying the bills by playing online poker. At that time, there weren’t that many online pros as this was before the big poker boom. I loved playing full-time my first year. But during the second year, sitting in front of a computer all day long was sometimes fun, and sometimes boring. I realized that this wasn’t something I could continue to do for many years. So I decided to mix up my day and I wrote my book. It was mainly for fun with the hope that maybe it would generate a little side income.

I moved back to the States after two years in May 2003, and released my book and launched the website. I had already updated my resume and was planning on continuing my career in corporate finance. Then Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker…

The first month I sold about 50 copies, then 100 copies, then 300 copies, then 600 copies. By the end of 2003 I had sold 2,000 copies. By the time 2004 came along, I was selling 2,000 copies a month of my little book. It swapped with Doyle Brunson’s Super System as the number-one and number-two best-selling books at Amazon UK during 2004.

My website was also growing exponentially, generating 100,000 visits a month during 2004. My plan of looking for a real job quickly disappeared. I had stumbled upon something that would take me on an amazing journey. I knew I wasn’t up for playing poker full-time in front of a computer screen all day, but the challenges of growing a business in an exploding industry — poker — was exhilarating. At the same time, my love for poker grew as I was now able to play for fun as a hobby on my own terms, instead of having to sit there every day to rely on it for income.

I took a break off from the poker business every summer and went to the World Series of Poker. From 2004-2007 I cashed three times in four years in the main event. Every summer I could get my live poker in that I enjoyed so much. On Sundays, I would play two-to-three times a month to stay sharp. Occasionally I would play during the week, but most of the time I was busy working on new books and the website.

I released my second book in 2005. My website continued to grow and grow and I hired some columnists to write strategy articles for the website. One of them was a frequent poster on my website, Ian Taylor, who wrote some very interesting articles looking at the psychological side of poker. I asked him one day, “Would you be interested in writing a poker book?” Working with Ian on The Poker Mindset was essentially the beginning of my publishing company. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of sharing ideas with Ian, editing, fine-tuning, etcetera. Following the success of The Poker Mindset, I pretty much decided that working as a publisher was a lot more fun than writing books on my own and my publishing company was born.

My company has now released 13 books over the years. Most of our books our “niche” books that have found a focused customer base. The Winning Poker Tournaments series has three volumes that have been well-received. Jeff Hwang’s Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha books are considered required reading for pot-limit Omaha players. We’ve published books ranging from psychology to math to how fitness and nutrition impacts performance. I have learned so much from each author I have worked with.

Another exciting part of my “job” has been working with translation partners around the world. Seeing our books in Japanese, Portuguese, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Czech, and even Estonian has shown how poker has grown around the world. In some of these languages, we now sell more overseas than we do with some of our English titles.

One of my favorite motivational writers is Anthony Robbins. I’m paraphrasing, but I remember when he once wrote something to the effect, “you might not see a lot of change in one year, but in five years you can make significant changes in your life, and in ten years dramatic changes.” I can’t imagine my life without poker these last ten years.
Besides the game itself, I am so thankful that it has given me the freedom to be with my wife and kids wherever I want and whenever I want. I just wish our government would give us all the right to enjoy poker wherever we want and whenever we want.

Thanks Moneymaker. Thanks to all who have supported our books. Thanks to all of those who have shared their poker stories and advice on my website. Thanks to all of the friends I’ve made through our mutual interest in this great game. Thanks poker for an amazing ten years.

Matthew is the owner of Dimat Enterprises, “Publishing Today’s Best Poker Books”. Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time Volume III is available at pokerbooks.InternetTexasHoldem.com in both print and e-book format. You may also try our new iPad app for free, Poker Coach Pro, based on content from the Winning Poker Tournament series.