Jeremy

This past weekend I had the opportunity to travel out to Las Vegas and participate in the Aced.com 2009 Affiliate Retreat.  It was a great time indeeed.  Of course there was no shortage of funny moments or debauchery (as should be expected when bringing poker affiliates together in Las Vegas).  Overall however, the weekend was extremely beneficial on many fronts.

Instead of posting all my pictures here, I am going to direct you over to Graham's Blog and John's Blog.  Or check my facebook profile.

Of course the VIP treatment, the partying, the gambling, and the meals were amazing.  But I was equally impressed by the true intentions of the Aced.com consultants for bringing a smaller group of affiliates together.  On the second day in Vegas, we had the opportunity to participate in a focus group.  This was probably one of the better focus groups I have participated in during my six years in the industry.

Not only were we able to learn more about Aced.com and the future plans of the room, we were also able to share valuable feedback with their consulting team.  The team took notes, listened attentively, and most importantly you could tell they valued our opinions.  I think we accomplished a lot in this meeting.

Personally moving into 2009, I think the Merge Network has the most potential for growth.  I also think Aced.com will grow to be one of the largest operators on the network by next year at this time.  I have seen many gaming operators both fail and succeed in this market.  And looking at what Aced.com is doing, they are on the right track for massive success.

I am also beginning to think that smaller events like this can be more beneficial to operators than spending $50K-$100K on a 4 hour party at a larger convention.  I wish more operators would host meetups / get togethers.  As affiliates it is easier to connect and learn more about an individual program in a smaller setting like this.

I know everyone wants to hear about the partying that transpired.  Wow, I don't even know where to start.  I could talk about VIP suites with stripper poles and bowling alleys.  Or I could talk about drinking Dom in the best booth at Body English.  I am probably not going to talk about spending 7+ hours at Spearmint Rhino, or how JohnH and I thought we had enough hand eye coorination to throw craps at 4:00 AM.

Overall, we had a killer time.  A big kudos goes out top Brandon Berndt and the entire Aced.com team for making this one of the funnest weekends I have ever experienced working in the poker affiliate industry.