» Spotlight on GrinderSchool
Knowing what your options are and helping you make an informed decision. That is Poker Curious' goal in representing the entire online poker universe. This week we spotlight GrinderSchool, a smaller poker training website specifically geared for newer low stakes players. Not only are they the most affordable monthly subscription site we've reviewed, but all their content is focused on low stakes tourney and cash game play.
GrinderSchool was the vision and dream of its sole owner, Jeffrey "JGB146" Blake. He felt there was a need for affordable instruction for those starting out before they could leap into the larger, more recognizable and considerably more expensive training sites. Blake explained "we started as a spin-off from a poker study group. One of our members (Jyms) was laid off from his day job when his company down-sized, and I suggested we use our collective knowledge to build a training site so that he (and the rest of us) had a few extra dollars coming in. The business model has always been to fill the gap in low stakes training sites, since it is something that was long left unaddressed in the industry. We want to make sure we do this at prices that our target demographic can afford."
GrinderSchool is an intimate operation. Jeffrey has the final word on all business decisions. He does a variety of tasks from customer service, instructional staff recruitment, web development, creating/evaluating future plans, scheduling of the Grinderschool Tournament Series events, marketing, producing videos and general maintenance tasks. Jeffrey further details,"I also do videos. That means that most of my poker playing is spent learning games/stakes/formats to prep for these types of videos. Ultimately, I think this has made me a more well-rounded player, though it also means playing way below the levels I reached outside of what I've done at GS." He also manages the dozen or so low stakes video instructors as well.
Another admin is Rebecca "Quest" Leaman, who handles the day-to-day administration of memberships, notification emails, and the actual release of content daily (releasing it on their site as well as making announcements on Facebook, Twitter, and their RSS feed). She also has a day job and happens to be Jeffrey's fiancee.
The third and final admin is Jeff "CodeRedRulez" Lipsey. His key tasks are to act as a lead instructor, monitor the forums to make sure no issues go unanswered, conduct out-of-the-box planning, pursue methods to expand the site, and other duties as assigned. Jeff plays professionally, so he balances his poker playing with coaching and GrinderSchool work.
Jeffrey summarizes things, "Our goal as a site is pretty simple: provide quality instruction to help low stakes players learn to dominate the game, while maintaining a price that keeps the training affordable to them." Because the subscription rates are so low and the site is still growing, the cash flow requires that Jeffrey keep his day job doing software development for a local IT company.
Jeffrey and Becky struggle to keep a healthy balance in their lives. Jeffrey explains "that's bound to happen when you're trying to build a business in your spare time while also working a full-time job, but it can certainly make things difficult at times. Our day-to-day jobs still pay so much more than GrinderSchool that they have to remain #1. After that, GrinderSchool comes in at a high second, followed by a distant tie between poker and personal life. The GrinderSchool workday begins at 6am EST, pauses around 7am, resumes around 4pm, and continues through the evening. Usually in the 7-8pm time frame we have things caught up enough that we can relax while eating dinner and then wind down for the day, while still periodically checking for issues that require immediate attention. I have a sleeping disorder (we'll call it insomnia for brevity, but that's not quite accurate), which finds me up past 2am some nights. On those nights I ultimately get extra work done on the site."
Jeffrey further states "Becky and I definitely can't take any trips that leave both of us without internet. Even for one of us to travel (such as for my trip to the WSOP the last two years), it takes planning and a certain amount of getting ahead of the ball, so to speak. Other hobbies take a back seat as well, though Becky still makes time to read an average of at least one book every couple weeks, and I work on various artistic endeavors (primarily abstract visual art and poetry), though much of that comes during my lunch hour at my day job." Since their families are quite a distance away, any time spent in person requires travel and fits into the "much rarer than we'd like" category alluded to above. They keep in touch with frequent phone calls, via Facebook, and occasionally when their family can visit them.
When asked what the best and worst things about being in the poker world were, Jeffrey said "The best thing about being in the poker industry is seeing how we can have a huge impact on the lives of others, all while doing what we love. One of the first guys who joined the site in the early days, started out at $0.01/$0.02 games with a $4 buyin. He recently came back to us as an instructor after proving himself up to the $2/$4, $400 buy-in games. I think he's made more money playing than we've brought in from memberships! Having that kind of impact to create a source of income for someone is very rewarding."
Jeffrey then said "The worst thing about being in the poker industry is the stigma that some parts of society attach to it. The morale judgments and crazy legislation are bad enough, but adding in that companies like Google and Facebook refuse to accept poker-related advertisements definitely makes it harder to establish yourself as a company."
Jeffrey passionately claims there are two factors that separate GrinderSchool from their competitors. "The first factor is obvious - our prices and content are geared toward low stakes players, from $5nl to $100nl. The second factor is less obvious, but it is our focus on our customers. We do everything we can to provide the best service we can to everyone, and that has prompted kudos from more than a few of our subscribers. That's part of where we got our philosophy of providing prorated refunds to anyone who doesn't think they got what they paid for with GrinderSchool. To date we've had only about half of one percent of our customers seek a refund of any sort."
When asked about future plans, Jeffrey mentioned plans for working with a major poker forum to produce some custom web-applications to help with collaborative analysis of a poker game. They are also brainstorming some new types of video content. Finally, once they're finished with all the different parts of the "How to Master Poker" video series (so far, SNGs and 6-max cash have been covered), they plan to turn it into a book.
The Poker Curious review of GrinderSchool
If you want to sign up for GrinderSchool, select Poker Curious as your referral and receive $5 back if you pay via Paypal.
