Poker Is Not Just A Game.

I truly respect poker players. In fact, most of my closest friends are all professional poker players. It wasn't always like that, as four of my closest friends became full time poker players back in 2004. In 2007 I had joined them in poker, not as player, but as a senior manager for the world's biggest poker site. By 2010 as the Regional Director for Asia I was responsible for bringing poker into mainstream Asia from Japan to Singapore and of course Macau. I resigned in early 2010 to pursue work with a private asset management firm, but every single day, the topic of poker kept on coming up.

Whenever I was introduced with my proverbial work history, I would constantly be bombarded with questions and inquiries about poker. Whether it was bankers asking me how good I was at Texas Hold.em (and trying to tell me how good they were) or full time players still seeking me out to ask for sponsorship advice, it became obvious that poker was more than just a job.

There are not many activities that you can do that pique your intellectual interest, combine both analytical and interpersonal skill and send your heart bursting through your chest while trying to be as focused as a sniper behind enemy lines. It is not an activity for the mere mortal.

The World's Premier Boutique Online Poker Room?

When I was asked to take on this role as CEO, I was flattered, but also laughed because while the potential owners/investors were asking many straightforward questions, the answers they got were anything but. Poker players need individual attention. Even if players can be categorized into broad 'marketing' groups, there is still a multitude of different factors that appeal to poker players at different limits, games and even time zones.

Simply put, players want to play at their best and, in my opinion, enjoy it, even the hardcore grinders. Every player who sits down at a table is aiming to be a hero, at least for one hand, one session, one final table and even one championship. In every live tournament that I have set-up, once the players were seated, the one thing that they wanted was to feel as though there was nothing standing between them, the cards and the other players.

So I told the owner/investors, if you want to establish a poker company, you need to make it a boutique one.

It means providing a personalized service that respects the player as a poker player.

This means tailor-making individual reward plans based on how players actually play, providing the highest quality branded merchandise at our cost for our loyal players and creating live events that are better than anything in the industry today. More than anything else, if you really want to make it the premier boutique site, it has to be done with sincerity and respect.

They asked me how much work was it going to take and I basically said that I needed to devote my life to this company and they asked me, 'will you?' and I said, 'if you let me run this as a boutique, then yes, I am your man'.

Hero Poker

I didn't pick the name Hero Poker because it was trendy. In poker, the Hero is the one who always makes the optimal decision in every hand, regardless of the outcome of the cards. He plays the players, the cards and himself. He is not the gambler, he is an artist and a competitor who lets others depend on lady luck and never gives up. It is the kind of player I think that all poker players aspire to be and this is a site dedicated to that passion and pursuit.

For me, I am fortunate to be joined on this site by six professional poker players that represent that ideal: Gavin Griffin, Terrence Chan, David Ewing, James Corwin Mackey, Julian Powell and Daniel Schreiber.

With sincere thanks and appreciation I welcome you to Hero Poker. I hope that we will meet in person at one of our live events and I am looking forward to hearing from each and everyone of you.

Best Regards,

David Jung

Hero Poker CEO

Dec 2010

Follow David's experience as CEO of Hero Poker on Facebook