First let me say that I am a huge fan of Poker Road, rarely does a day go by where I don’t check it out at least once. In terms of “Pokertainment” they are tops and there really isn’t a close second. But will they make it I think is the real question? By my idiot math it looks like they have at least 20 people working for them in some capacity, that isn’t cheap. Fact is they are climbing uphill, they took on the task of making a poker content site while the money for poker was conceivably drying up.

Here is the first problem that works against PokerRoad. Their audience. If you like Poker Road’s main show with Joe Sebok and Gavin Smith, Big Poker Sunday’s or Two Jacks in the Hole with Scott Huff and Joe Stapleton (my personal favorite) you are not typically a casual poker player that just happened upon the show and ultimately that is what sponsors want. When I say sponsors I mean poker sites because that is where the money is in poker content. Look at the content on Cardplayer or Pokernews and you will be hard pressed to think that the content compares, PokerRoad is far superior in my opinion. But what Pokernews and to a lesser extent Cardplayer has is the attention of Google and a history with bringing online players to poker sites. When a new player is seeking something related to poker, Poker Road has no chance of showing up. Even on podcasts where they are the undisputed champs it is going to take some time to break through the clutter that is internet marketing. Why is that you ask? In theory the best shows should rise to the top but that isn’t the way things work on the internet. Sites are ranked based on age and relevance, two categories that PokerRoad falls short on. The sites with authority that could link to Poker Road to establish them will not because they are the competition. A perfect example is the fact that PokerRoad links to PokerNews but the opposite isn’t true (they may have once or twice but it isn’t on their front page).

So why don’t internet poker sites value websites based on the quality of their content and reward them with advertising dollars and support. Simply put they don’t get it; the poker industry is 2-3 years behind where they should be almost always, there are many reasons for that and I could write a book on that topic alone. For the industry to still have such an emphasis on new customers is just absurd. A site like PokerRoad that has a very loyal base that listens regularly should be exactly what online poker sites want (and don’t give me Doyle’s Room, which is a blip on the radar). Look at Poker Stars, they spend millions on television advertising yet one of their own (Barry Greenstein) has a very prominent website and they don’t support it. To further prove my point PokerStars is the title sponsor of the 2+2 podcast based on the number of readers that frequent 2+2, there just is not enough history yet for PokerRoad to say they are competitive, though if you listen to the shows the clearly are on content. The politics of this is tough though, not every player on Poker Road supports Poker Stars. In fact the main podcast on PokerRoad used to be hosted on Pokerwire.com which was supported by Full Tilt Poker. So in a sense at least one big poker site has tried to support at least one of these podcasts and it failed (the show with Joe and Gavin). I don’t know the history of that all that well but I am pretty sure if you based your decisions on new poker sign ups pokerwire was a failure.

So is that the correct way to view websites and their hold on customers? Well PokerRoad better hope not because on that criteria alone they have absolutely no chance of making it long term. In essence what PokerRoad is up against is an industry that isn’t very mature and potential partners where bridges are either burned or the bridges that could be made really don’t see a use for them. There are only so many Doyle’s Rooms out there and even with their support it just isn’t enough to feed 20 mouths. Not to mention the additional demands that your customers will make of you as you mature.

PokerRoad does have one huge thing going for it though. Egos. Many professional poker players are far from the celebrities that a lot of people think they are. Just having their name in print and having 200 people reading their blogs might be enough to keep an endless stream of bloggers showing up but I doubt it. As someone who has run up against some of the same ceilings they are encountering the only people that you will have their full attention are the people that you pay or the people that have paid (investors). Everyone else goes into a rut, gets a girlfriend, joins a commune, the list goes on; poker players are just a fickle bunch. Also when you sign up to contribute content on Poker Road you start off 4th behind Joe, Gavin and Barry. That is just fact.

Friends, energy and good content should be enough but I doubt it will be. Would Cardplayer or Pokerwire (Full Tilt) really have let them go if they saw good value from them? I would doubt that. Here is a site that tracks poker URL’s while Poker Road isn’t ranked I can let you know that for January they would have been between AllVegasPoker and TopPoker, in February they would have been between PokerTracker and Cardrunners. Essentially they started off with a bang and gained a following, we will know a lot more after this years WSOP.

So why did I write this? Do I just hate PokerRoad? Far from it, in fact, the exact opposite is true. I think the industry needs to mature and start rewarding newer sites with good ideas. Of course you could argue that PokerRoad had many signs that the industry just didn’t work that way, yet they decided to press forward. Which may have been bold but might not have been prudent, what Poker Road needs is time and patience, neither of which I think they will be afforded. I hope I am wrong.