After the Covid pandemic knocked us down from 40 games a week to zero games, we had to make a decision: Hold'em or fold'em. We chose to hold'em, using creative minds. We started with adding free weekly games online so that players could stay connected. After bars started to open, but the 6 foot rule was still in place, we came back to a couple of bars and played online but in person - separated by at least 6 feet from one another. That was interesting, to say the least. Then the restrictions were finally lifted and bars began to reopen with normal hours and limited menus. We slowly reconnected with our venues, some were lost to the pandemic, while others were heavily affected. It took a while to build the momentum back, and once it started to gain traction, the interest in poker came back and we started seeing players return.

When people lose an activity that really shaped their lives for a long time, they reach for something new once it's gone. We lost a lot of players to new interests, moving out of town, life changes, and health matters.

I would be remiss to not mention all of the lives that were lost during the shutdown:

Bruce Raze
DD Gaul
Jeff Watts
Marissa Copenhaver
Clyde Foster
Terry Muehlhauser
Bryan Prosser
LJ Cagle
Dennis Carter
Patrick Martinez
Dan Tremaine
Bob Willenberg
Roger Mitchell
Ron Owens
Carolyn Boyd
Tom Barker
Pamela French
Ed Brinkley
John Gustafson
Rich Tolvstad
Ken DeMacon
George Rutherford
Ed Dong

We miss each and every one of you terribly!

So with all of these different kinds of losses, we had to rebuild a mostly new community of players, still with a big group of OG's coming back out to play. A large number of directors still had interest in running games, so with their help, we started growing the venue list little by little. With added venues and players, interest continued to grow. We added more directors and more games, and continued to expand our player base. After about 2 years, we had nearly 20 venues on the roster, and hopes of more to come.

One of the best bits of advice I ever received while at an entrepreneurs symposium was this: The fastest way to fail in business is to grow too fast. When you grow too fast, you're not equipped to handle what you don't know is coming.

So with this bit of knowledge in our pockets, we decided that a slow and more organic growth was in our best interest. So we let the pot boil, slowly. It's not to say that there weren't growing pains and challenges, but we felt like it was the right approach.

Over the last year, things really have taken off. Interest in poker globally has shifted again, and we are seeing more players in the field than in a long time. Interestingly enough, we are watching poker rooms close in Vegas for financial reasons (they are far less lucrative than slots and table games), and smaller regional games on the rise. Just because the rooms are closing doesn't mean that interest is waning. It just is creating new challenges and needing creative solutions.

With this rise in poker fandom, we too have risen. As of today, we now have 40 games a week to offer you! This means that we have finally reached our recovery goal, and are now reaching for the stars. We have YOU to thank for this. You ARE MAD Poker, and we love our poker family.

So cheers to 40! I can't wait to see what's next, and see you on the felt!

Marianne (& David) Foster

History