Grrrinders Celebrating 1-Year Anniversary

Grrrinders.com, which labels itself “America’s Freeroll Site,” just celebrated its first anniversary in March. As a company, Grrrinders couldn’t be more appropriately named.

www.Grrrinders.com offers strictly tournament poker on a membership basis. Members may purchase an optional membership for $29.95 which gives them automatic entry into every tournament they wish to play, as well as their own personal blogs, album storage, Skype connectivity, forums, free advice from resident pros, newsletters and more. All memberships are voluntary and are not done on a subscription basis.

During its first year, the legal, U.S. based online poker site survived 3 DOS attacks during its first two weeks, closure of their PayPal account for processing, a second credit card processing firm that seized $11,000, Black Friday and a bank official that threatened to seize all personal and company assets of its primary backer in fear of repercussions of being affiliated with an online poker site.

Grrrinders sat down to talk David Webb the founder and C.E.O of Grrrinders.com as he reflects back on a fascinating first year in the world of online poker.

Q: How did Black Friday affect Grrrinders?

A: We had troubles prior to Black Friday with credit card processing in the U.S. Our primary investor felt that by moving part of the company banking to his personal bank in Oregon. For the convenience of our members, we had set up ACH transactions. This was a couple days after Black Friday, and the minute we processed our very first one, a bank official threatened to seize all personal and company funds in the bank.

Q: So that is when Grrrinders shut down?

A: We never shut down nor were closed. In mid June, we ceased giving away cash prizes until we were able to get U.S. based credit card processing. We were shocked at the number of players that continued to play tournaments day and night without prizes and we continued to be a vibrant, social community. In addition, we paid over $135,000 in winnings to every player on the site, rather than just close and file for bankruptcy.

Q: Why was U.S. based credit card processing so important when overseas companies were available?

A: We are an American company with offices in Fernley, NV and fully licensed in the state of Nevada. First and foremost, it was strictly on principal. We have all the necessary licensing and were armed with a lengthy legal opinion. We have never been a gambling site. Players never are risking money, nor purchasing tokens, points or any other instrument that has any value to it in order to play on the site. As a company, we did not want to get associated with companies that were processing credit cards offshore. There have been far too many documented cases of fraud with offshore credit card processors, and we weren’t willing to put our customers at risk nor become associated with an offshore provider that was also processing gambling deposits.

Q: How were able to convince a bank to allow you accept credit cards?

A: It was the most aggravating and difficult experience I personally have ever dealt with. I must have invested 1,000 hours in discussions, filling out form after form, and constantly hearing “Nobody will touch this…online poker is illegal.” I doubt that of the hundreds of banks and credit card processing firms I spoke with, not a single one ever read the legal opinions, nor even took into account that people can actually play poker online and not be gambling. Finally, a firm in Palo Alto, CA actually took the time to do a bit of research and granted us approval. Wepay.com has become our biggest ally and has helped Grrrinders grow to where it is today.

Q: By the way, congrats on your recent anniversary. How did Grrrinders get started?

A: It’s been my opinion for a long time, that poker players should not have to lose money in order to practice their craft. Peyton Manning doesn’t pay money every time he goes to throw the football. Tiger Woods pays a membership fee at his local country club to hit as many golf balls as he desires and play unlimited golf. Grrrinders was designed for tournament poker players that wanted a place to compete and be able to practice their poker.

Q: Your website states that players have won over $250,000 in cash. That is quite a lot of money for playing freerolls, how do you do it?

A: Actually the figure is really misleading. In addition to all the cash, we have given away 35 seats to $1,000 events at the World Series of Poker, and an additional 40 seats to regional events such as the Jennifer Harman Throwdown, Venetian Deepstacks, Circuit events, HPT and WPT regionals. We do it because in order to maintain a strong level of play, players need good prizes in order bring their “A” game. You will rarely see more than 3 people seeing a flop on Grrrinders. Recently, we had a final table last 11 levels, and the heads up portion last nearly an hour. Although we are officially a sweepstakes site and adhere to all sweepstakes laws, we market to the serious player. We spending our marketing dollars strictly where poker players are. In fact, our latest promotion is that we awarded six players off our site a $1,000 rebate on their live tournament play as way of giving them a shot at becoming a pro. These type of promotions help keep the level of play at a relatively high standard, while also giving deserving players a shot at fulfilling a dream.

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