Lee Jones's Blog


January 29 2009

Destination Unknown

0

Many of you have read in the CR Forums that Friday, February 6th, will be my last day as COO of CardRunners. I pretty much covered the reasons my departure there. It also occurs to me that some people don't have access to the forums, so I'll append my post at the bottom of this.

I want to use this space to basically say a small number of things:

  • I have had a great time at CardRunners. I learned a whole lot, worked with some wonderful people, and generally enjoyed myself.
  • As was true at PokerStars, and the EPT, it was you folks - the poker players (and those nutty enough to read about poker but not play it) who kept me engaged and energized. Thank you for your support, your emails, your PMs, your complaints, your suggestions, all of it.
  • I honestly have no idea of what comes next for me. We'll see in a year what's going on. I do know that I anticipate being a much better dobro player and trout fisherman this time next year. Well, more experienced at both, anyway.
See you down the road. Soon, I hope.

Regards, Lee

Life is so strange when you don't know
How can you tell where you're going to
You can't be sure of any situation
Something could change and then you won't know

You ask yourself
Where do we go from here
It seems so all too near
Just as far beyond as I can see
I still don't know what this all means to me

=====================

My post in the CardRunners forum:

Hi folks -
As you can see from the above announcement, Jim Varnon is stepping in to be COO of CardRunners/StoxPoker.

Which I suppose begs the question of what I'm doing :)

I have decided to go see what the world has in store for me next... Taylor and I agree that it's the best thing for both the company and me. Be assured that there are no "problems". I have the highest regard for Taylor and all the people at CardRunners. And I extend that same respect to the StoxPoker people, particularly Jim Varnon, with whom I've gotten to work closely. Jim is going to be a dynamite COO. Basically the issue is that we've got too many managers for the work that needs to be done, and that's too many mouths to feed. Everybody else is tied to CardRunners by a substantial equity position, so I'm the natural candidate to step aside.

CardRunners is a healthy business that continues to thrive. There are new programs such as Truly Free Poker Training and the Hold'em Manager purchase program. And exciting new instructors such as Internet Pokers and thatpfunk. But a company always has to watch its bottom line, especially in economic times such as these.

I am going with the good wishes of my colleagues at CardRunners/StoxPoker, and they know they have mine.

When I first took this job, I expected it to have a lower time demand than my PokerStars and EPT jobs. For better or worse, it didn't turn out that way. I don't expect to be taking a regular j*b in (or out of) the poker industry in the foreseeable future. I have a couple of poker-related projects I'm looking at, but nothing even approaching full time. I'm going to hike around the Blue Ridge mountains, go trout fishing, play music, travel, and, yes, play some poker.

And I will continue to be a presence in the various forums, but it'll be in the strategy forums rather than the administrative ones.

Thank you all for your warm reception and correspondence throughout the past year - I've been honored to be part of this. And I look forward to what comes next for me. I'm sure you all will be excited by what comes next at CardRunners.

Best regards,
Lee Jones



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Lee Jones , Member Since '07

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