Poker Sharks.co.uk

Blog mooooooooooved...

2006-11-23T10:58:00.000Z

I haven't viewed this blog for a while and now I know why - it looks like a dogs dinner, yuk.

The new blog is at: http://www.pokersharks.co.uk/blog2 so please go now - save your eyes.

I could tell you, but then id have to kill you.

2006-10-02T22:07:00.000+01:00

First blog entry in a long while.....have to get atleast one entry before the big launch of the poker room. For those of you that havent seen it yet a version can be found at: http://www.pokersharkspokerroom.com/demo.html you can login with your usual poker sharks username and have a look around. Im very pleased with how things have turned out despite the delays - to coin a phase, good things come to those that wait.

Then we move on to the Season 3 winner Iceman and the prize thats just been sent out. Took me a while to find the right design but i was happy with what i found in the end. First of many for our elite players and a nice momento for the future (maybe even a nice bragging tool for any future live Poker Sharks games!), here it is:

A very nice prize methinks =).

The first of the things i cant tell you but will mention is: some great top 10 gifts so not just the number one position is rewarded next season (as if you need it, surely just playing is reward enough?).

Work and testing is going to take another 3-4 weeks so thats when Season 4 will be starting. Aiming for the end of October/early November - i've got some great ideas on how to get the traffic coming in its droves and im confident once they land they'll be here to stay. Onto the second thing i cant(/dont want to spoil the surprise) tell you- watch out for the viral puzzle coming out in the next month or so - it have you thinking im sure, but for now, thats all im saying.

So i suppose that ends another blog entry that has promised a lot but only delievered slithers of info i must apologise, all will become clear soon.

The next 2 months or so could see Poker Sharks take leaps and bounds from where we are today so its a very exciting time and i cant wait for all this hard work to pay off and see players playing in the poker room and enjoying themselves.

Not long to go i promise, bear with me.....

Season 3 Results

2006-08-15T20:20:00.000+01:00

Well here we are again, 100 days later and we have our Top 100 players.

As a small addition we also have a few more top 20 tables for people to have a look at that are available in the forum.

But here its time to say; Congratulations to all those that made the Top 100!

More updates on Season 4 very very soon - beta testing for the poker room will be beginning and then it wont be long till it all goes live!

So yeah, Season 4 offers a massive twist on Season 3 to keep things interesting. See all 1000+ of you there hopefully!

Cheers,

Lynx

Season 3 is coming to an end...

2006-08-07T23:56:00.000+01:00

Thursday 10th August 12AM(MIDNIGHT)GMT Season 3 ends

So thats nearly exactly 3 days to go before the magic 'Top 100' gets announced and all that hard work pays off. If you're in a different time zone than us Brits then please makes sure you've done everything you want to well in time so you dont lose out. So thats all challenges, poker skill games plus spend the last of those chips! Remember we now have a poker skill shop to spend any left over chips in the poker den that might just make a one place difference.

News on Season 4 is all good. The poker room is coming along great and we're nearly at beta testing stage so for those of you who will miss their daily fix of poker sharks then you're more than welcome to help test the biggest new addtion to poker sharks since the beginning.

Good luck people............3 days and counting...........

Update on things and Press Release number 2...

2006-05-12T18:26:00.000+01:00

As Season 3 settles in I thought I’d give everyone a quick update on what’s going on with Poker Sharks.

Well, with regards to the main game things are going well - there's a few updates being done to patch over a few things but apart from that its all going extremely well. Not used to it being quiet there, I usually have a full inbox and the infamous 'list' on my desk is as long as my arm.

With regards to the new poker room, work hasn’t yet started but will be soon. I'll release some sneak previews over the coming weeks of the new look. I'll be asking for opinions/criticisms once development is started so don’t book any summer holidays just yet =).

Advertising - well im sure you've all noticed the in game adverts; I hope they're not too distracting whilst playing games. At the moment we have a selection of poker sites advertising on there but I’d like to get a more broad advertising base going if possible. So, if you would like to advertise your site/product on a site that has a growing base of players email me and I’m sure you'll be surprised at how reasonable the rates are. Getting in now could prove a good tactic because as player sign ups go up, so will the advertising rates so get in now to reserve your spot.

The world of banners has hit the forums recently. There are already some very good banners around so for those of you that haven’t joined you’ve got to do it even if it’s just for a banner. Not having any Photoshop skills isn't an excuse either, as a few days ago I didn't have any and I managed to produce this:

Even if you don't reckon you can't do one just ask for help in the 'I need a banner' thread and someone will help.

Oh yeah, the press release - nearly forgot! For those of you that would like to read it, it can be found at: Press Release. Haven’t got the cool dude doing the pod cast this time though, I thought it was standard but it must have been free with your first press release then an extra charge after or something. Sneaky, sneaky I reckon. It seems to have done the trick though as it raised a fair bit of interest already.

I don’t know how many of you know about Alexa.com, but I’ve been tracking Poker Sharks' progress over the months and only recently have we managed to get off the bottom of the graph. We've had a few spikes of success here and there but no constant traffic that has resulted in more than a straight line on zero (we're just not worth the bother you see). If you'd like to have a look at our graph its here. The site has gone from being ranked 2 millionth to 1 millionth in the world in the last couple of days so fingers crossed we can keep it up. My personal target is to be in the top 100,000 sites within the year, I have regretted thinking out loud before so I hope it doesn't happen again! But nah, that target should be easy, with the plans Poker Sharks has it should easily be in the top 100,000 in a years time, hopefully much higher than that.

So, that’s about it for another post, have a good weekend all. FA cup final tomorrow here in England so I know where I’ll be all day tomorrow....

Season 3 is underway......just.

2006-05-04T18:15:00.000+01:00

Seaoson 3 is finally here as of May 2nd!

To say it was eventful would be an understatement but we got there in the end. Apologies to those that had problems with their accounts - i think i've sorted everyones account now. If I havent please email me at pokergods@pokersharks.co.uk and ill be more than happy to have a look if i've missed something. I dont bite i promise so instead of leaving upset, just drop me a line and ill see what i can do.

All in all though its been a great start with competition already hotting up at the top.

A few people have been asking about Poker Den membership. Just to be clear - everyone gets 3 days free access now, after this, the options to pay will appear - £5 for 100 days (1 season) or £15 for 400 days (4 seasons) - its up to you which you pick. Might have to look into making it possible to pay during the first 3 days but we'll see.

On a totally different note - a match between England and Germany Legends was on last night and it was a great game even though we lost 4-2. The highlight of the match was Boris Johnson (a wacky MP for those that dont know) taking out one of the germans in the funniest way possible. For those that missed the match you can see a clip of it here: BORIS the LEGEND

Anyway back to business - the forum has had a few new sections added to it so please join up and chat to your fellow Poker Sharks. You might want to ask a question or just express an opinion/idea about something.

So yeah, all in all Poker Sharks is looking good - spread the word to your mates and get them to sign up so they dont get too far behind. Lets make this a great season before the poker room arrives......i cant wait, yet im dreading the amount of work involved!

Oh yeah, im playing under cover this season so theres no Lynx bullying like last time - see you in the challenges very soon =).

Update on the updates....

2006-04-18T19:12:00.000+01:00

Well in short they are taking an age - when you update one thing it messes up another and you end up chasing your own tail for a few hours!

We are getting there though and the site will be back soon - sorry to all those who are waiting for Season 3, it will be coming soon i promise - and yeah i know i've said that before =).

On a brighter note we have the new designs for our 4 newest Poker Sharks - and i can tell you that these are looking superb. Just to prove how good they are, here's a sneek preview:

(Click to enlarge them)

Just a bit of proof i am doing something and not just pretending to be busy =). I think you'll agree that they look great, im very pleased with how they've turned out - the tiger shark took about 7 versions until we arrived at the one you're seeing now. More than worth the effort when the final results come in though!

So yeah, thats about it for now - the site will be back soon, when i dont know exactly yet, but it will be back soon. Thanks for being patient, im as keen to get Season 3 underway as anyone right now.

Cheers,

Lynx

Season 3 Updates and Additions

2006-03-31T10:48:00.000+01:00

Ok, so i've been going on about all the new stuff that is coming to Poker Sharks, well here's what to expect for Season 3:

Poker Skill Shop – An unlimited supply of Poker Skill available from inside the Poker Den for the price of 1 Poker Skill for 50 chips. Not the best value in the world but once you have brought everything it will be a very handy place to go and spend those otherwise worthless chips. (with the poker room coming soon this shop will become more and more important)

4 new Poker Sharks – At the moment we have 4 Poker Sharks on our books, well as of next season we will be doubling our work force to incorporate another 4! The new arrivals are: a Bull, Tiger, Nurse and Angel Sharks. (Sneak previews coming soon.) Each of the 8 Poker Sharks will have good and bad abilities at certain Poker Skills, the exact stats are:

These percentage increases and decreases will be effective during Challenges and Tournaments so make sure you use them to your advantage.

Holiday Mode: You'll now be able to miss upto 2 days Poker Skill training without losing out. Each day you are allowed to train up 4 Poker Skills, but if you miss a day the next day you'll be able to train 8 skills, upto a maximum of 12. Any more triaing sessions after 12 will be lost. Please note that this is the only feature that will be included in holiday mode, all other games will still be on a 'once day basis'.

Anti-Bullying clause: You wont be able to Challenge any player more than 10 times (win, lose or draw) per week (7 days). There's loads of players to choose from so instead of challenging the same person over and over, you'll be forced to be a bit more inventive and find a few other targets as well.

24 hour verification: At the moment you have to sign up and then wait for a verification email before you login. This will change to allow players straight into the game after sign up and give them 24 hours to verify the account. After 24 hours the account will be locked if it hasnt been verified. This change has come about as some players have reported the email taking longer than expected to arrive so rather than waiting for it you can play straight away and then verify the account once it arrives.

3 day Free Poker Den - to give all players a taste of what is in the poker den it will be open for the first 3 days of each Season. After these 3 days it will be closed and all benefits like wages, diet value, luck etc will be taken away unless they then pay to get in.

Banners - Poker Sharks will start using the in-game banner to advertise various websites and services. To begin with it seems the online poker rooms will be the most prominent. Hopefully I can get rid of these if poker den memberships increase.

Overtime - This will be working as first intended. Each day your daily wage will go up by 100 chips for a 4 of a kind in the main job game (200 for Aces); and (250/500 for moonlighting). Before these amounts were paid as one offs, in Season 3 they will be treated like promotions so your salary goes up and up.

Poker Den up to £5 - An increase of £1. All the extra development and a dedicated server comes at a cost and hopefully the small increase will help pay for this. This price will be fixed for the next couple of seasons for certain now, hopefully longer!

Poker Den payment schemes: Instead of paying 'per season', Poker Den memberships will now last for 100 days (the length of a season). This means that you can carry over your poker den membership from one season to another - so if you pay half way through a season you'll get about half the next season paid for as well. There will also be a yearly membership that gets you 400 days for the price of 300. By paying for a year's membership you will be paying £15 for 400 days rather than £20. Id like to pass on a discount for our loyal players and at the same time get in some cash to pay for all these updates and future ones - and this does it nicely =).

Challenge History: At the moment all your challenges 'made' and 'taken' are stored in one long list. This will be split in 2 to make it easier for players to know who they've been challenging and who has been challenging them.

WPSS Shark teeth: Rather than just getting a tooth for winning the WPSS there will now be awards for more places:

- Top 10 finish – Bronze tooth +10,000 Value
- 3rd – Silver Tooth +20,000 Value
- 2nd – Gold Tooth +30,000 Value
- 1st – Pink tooth (like Premier Tournament chip) + 50,000 Value

Tournament Freedom: Once a player has won the Premier Tournament they will be awarded the grade of 'Champion' but they wont be able to enter any tournament they wish like before. Only the premier tournament can be entered. This will give the players lagging behind more of a chance to move up grades and not have sharks twice their size entering their tournaments each day.

Other Things:
1. New front page that gives more information about poker sharks to the first time visitor.
2. Forum face lift to make it a bit lighter and more welcoming.
3. A link to this blog on the main game like the tutorial and forum buttons.

These are the updates that are being done right now. As soon as they are ready Season 3 will be launched (approx April 12th).

Straight after this work will start on the Poker Room that will allow players to play live poker against other poker shark players for their play in-game chips. There will be 'sit and play' tables, tournaments, live WPSS on sunday and loads more. I've played just about every online poker room and designed one that incorporates all the good points of them and leaves out the bad points. I hope anyway! It all looks good on paper so i cant wait to see what it looks like in real life. This is scheduled for Season 4 but could make a mid season appearance during Season 3 if development and testing all go to plan.

And thats about it for now. A fair chunk of work to be getting on with I think, well i dont do things by halves!

Already got a great idea for Season 5 but im keeping this one quiet - i've learnt my lesson =)!

Bring on Season 3!

Season 2 - Top 100!

2006-03-29T01:05:00.000+01:00

Well after 99 days of poker skill games, challenges and careful spending of chips we have our Top 100 for Season 2!

Well done to Hajuuu (you seem to add a 'u' each season), the lead changed hands a fair few times during the months but you came out victorious - Congratulations!

The Top 100 had many a interesting battle, whether it was 3rd and 4th, 6th and 7th or 35th and 36th everyone was battling hard for postion. Well done to all those that managed to get into the Top 100 - its getting harder each season! Also a big thankyou to the 1333 total players that took the time to sign up and give Poker Sharks a go.

Season 3 is a few weeks away and as always I have loads of additions that will be coming in to
make the game even better - details to follow VERY soon. There is the infamous poker room coming for Season 4 as well so there is loads to look foward to - this really is just the beginning!

Thanks again to all those that have played (and paid ) and well done to those that achieved a Top 100 place!

So without any further a do, here are the Top 100 for Season 2 (click to enlarge a section):

Loads happening....

2006-03-15T15:51:00.000Z

Well, where to start?

At the begginning is as good a place as any....

The 4 new Poker Shark designs will be arriving for Season 3. The 4 new characters are:

Tiger Shark
Bull Shark
Nurse Shark
Angel Shark

Previews of all the new sharks will be coming soon, i dont want to spoil the suprise though! We will then have 8 Poker Shark characters to go with the 8 Poker Skills - each will have speacial abilities relating to these; more news to follow on that.

As well as these guys arriving, there will be some BIG changes happening in Season 3. I'll post the full list once its confirmed, but there are some great addtions to keep everyone on their toes!

Poker Sharks recently became PokerSharks Ltd (very official), meaning investors can buy shares in Poker Sharks. (If anyone is interested in this contact pokergods@pokersharks.co.uk for more details.)

Outside investment has been brought on board allowing for not only these new characters but also the illusive Poker Room to be added! Planned for Season 4 as development and testing will all take time. I dont want to rush things and end up with bugs left right and centre. The poker room really will take Poker Sharks to the next level and improve player interaction no end making the whole experience 10 times better.

And you'll all be pleased to know that this fanatastic new addition wont be costing poker den members a single penny more. Oh no, you're standard poker den access which will be £5 for Season 3 will still be £5 for Season 4 despite the new poker room being added.

How?

Well, outside investment has taken the brunt of the initial cost of the poker room, but also I have found some advertising partners. Now i hate advertising as much as the next person i am determined to keep it minimal. There will be one banner on the poker room and then on more on the main game.

At the moment the space has been taken up by online poker sites that offer real money poker. Now for those of you that dont want to gamble real mooney thats fine - just ignore them. But for those of you that do, you'll get some extra bonus' by click through from the Poker Sharks site, like free money so its not a bad deal really =)!

You've probably noticed the adverts over there-------------------------------------------------->

Well they all carry bonus' that will get you free cash if you signup on the respective site by following the links. Im hoping they arent to annoying for those of you who just want to come and find out whats going on.

But yeah, everything is looking good right now. There is a mountain of work to get through in the coming months but once its done the results will be magical - i hope.

Fingers crossed.

Press Release Launched!

2006-02-16T19:14:00.000Z

Today I braved the world of PR. I have been trying my best to get a press release out into the media but could never really afford that kind of money. Id rather save the money for future updates to improve the site.

However, recently I found a site that provides much cheaper press releases (approx £40 rather than £1000) if you write it yourself. Id never written one before but I've seen a few in my time and figured I'd give it a shot - what’s the worst that can happen?

Today I finished it and its being fired around the media world as we speak, click here to read it. The company is called eworldwire and they have even provided a small video clip for those journalists who don’t like reading and prefer watching (here it is). I like the way the guy is blatantly reading the article but is trying his best not to let on, nice piece of advertising though!

It was only launched late today and already the number of hits for the day are the biggest we've ever had. Hopefully all the journalists that are visiting will like the site and print a few words on Poker Sharks in their next article - fingers crossed anyway.

Of course loads of hits doesn’t mean anything without an increase in signups so I'm not going to count my chickens just yet. Promising start for a £40 press release though!

PS We crossed the 1000 player marker for Season 2 over the last couple of days - a few weeks better than last Season which is nice =).

PPS Im still waiting for the site updates to be done; they're close so I'll let you know once they've gone live.

Free Chips and Poker Den Access.

2006-01-31T15:43:00.000Z

Im sure you all have noticed the email asking you to pass on the Poker Sharks message in an attempt to get your friends to have a go at Poker Sharks. Well im very pleased to say many of you did pass on the message and over the last week I've handed out more than 1 million free Chips. No Poker Den accesses have been awarded yet but a few people are very close.

Thanks to everyone that helped spread the word, the best recommendation we can get is from you guys so cheers for spending 2 minutes to help.

I'll also take this opportunity to say hello and welcome to the new players that have arrived, so; hello and welcome, we all hope you're enjoying the game and work your way up the rankings!

On another issue we're currently updating a few things on the site, mainly to do with Overtime in both jobs, its partially fixed now but needs more work.

There will be further news on this once I have it, thanks again people.

Facts and Figures

2006-01-23T17:14:00.000Z

I've had many a request to publish the stats and figures that are involved when playing Poker Sharks and using this Blog is the perfect opportunity to do exactly that. So, due to popular demand is everything you need to know about Poker Sharks (pay attention =)...

(This is an addition to the Tutorial and assumes you have read it.....hint hint)

(oh yeah, to see the images properly click them and you'll have a bigger version thats nice and easy to read so you dont have to squint, click 'back' to return here.)

POKER SKILL GAMES

Each time you play a Poker Skill game not only do you win Poker Skill that adds to your Value you also earn 'Level Points'. Once you have won enough Level points you move up a Level. Each level enables you to win 10% more Poker Skill each time you play a Poker Skill game.

Your Level also affects the amounts won/lost in Challenging like so:

- When you get Challenged you lose the amount of Poker Skill that relates to YOUR Level.

- When you Challenge another player you win the amount of poker Skill that relates to THEIR level.

TOURNAMENTS

You can enter one Tournament per day and each time you win one you're allowed to progress up to the next one.

As you progress the Buyins get bigger and bigger, and so do the payouts!

The payouts arent always the same if your Tournament wasnt full (10 players). The payouts are worked out like this (the % won comes from the all the buyins added together):

The WPSS also has very different Payouts depending on how many players enter. The biggest payout has been well over 100,000 Chips which isnt bad for a 1,000 chip buyin. You also are awarded with a Sharks Tooth to display next to your Shark if you win the WPSS (mainly for bragging rights).

JOBS

Each day you get the chance for a pay rise, heres the jobs available and the pay increases.

Overtime can be played every day once you reach the final job and you're able to add upto 200 more chips a day to your pay packet in the main game and upto 500 in the Poker Den.

HOUSES

Houses dont come with added Poker Skill like the items do, but the bulk Value makes them a valuable asset:

ITEMS

These can really boost any players score very quickly as they're all loaded with free Poker Skill. Be careful which ones you buy to maximise the Poker Skills you want to improve. Also beware that these tastey items can be stolen during a Challenge if you lose 4-0.

As always the Poker Den holds some Season Winning items for Players that have access. Only Poker Den members can win these items in Challenges.

DIET

Often overlooked the Diet could be the key to success. The initial cost to research how to cook these culinary delights is high, but over time it more than pays for itself. Each food takes an increasing amount of time to research meaning players that neglect thier diet may never get to taste those much acclaimed Penguin Pancakes!

So there you go, loads of info for everyone to digest. No doubt i've missed something somewhere so im sure ill be adding some more facts and figures soon, this should keep you going for now though!

Poker Sharks History

2006-01-16T16:13:00.000Z

Should have started something like this a year ago, but better late than never, so here goes...

It was nearly a year ago (Early 2005) that I dreamt up the concept for Poker Sharks, a few scribbles on a piece of paper and a lot of hard work later the game was born, here's how I did it:

I was at a time in my life where I could either get a flash car or invest in something I believed in and could potentially make some money. It didn't take me long to sacrifice the flash car in search of my dream idea.

Having played many online games and never being quite happy with how they worked I decided to design my very own online game. All I needed was an idea, something to base the whole game on, but what?

Over the last 12 months there has been a massive interest in Poker and I am well and truly caught up in it too! So there was the base that I needed....POKER!

Now I needed to make it unique, there are a million and one sites out there where you can play poker, so why would anyone play mine? Besides, I didn’t want to set up a gambling site, the whole point was to provide a fun service for people for as cheap as possible and get as many people playing as I could - not make money for the sake of it. I was searching around various poker forums for inspiration when I saw the phrase 'poker shark' being used. Poker Shark? Hmmm, could I turn this well known poker phrase into a game? I was gonna have a go!

Now I had my character and a subject, I had a site to design. Instantly I got to work scribbling everything that came into my head. Some were gold others not so precious but every idea was something, and it was better than nothing. For days i couldn't sleep as my mind would be buzzing with new ideas and I had to write EVERYTHING down just incase i forgot in the morning.

Eventually after many Tuna Trifles and Penguin Pancakes I had a 50-page document that encompassed my game. Poker Sharks had a fully-grown specification! My design was an idea of each player having their own baby Poker Shark. The player can buy him food, a house, gadgets and train his Poker Skills to make him the best around. Each day they can enter him into Tournaments where he will play against other Poker Sharks and win more chips. Each player can also Challenge another Shark to a one-on-one showdown to see who has the best Poker Skills combined with their luck for the day.

The main parts of the game are designed to be open for all players totally for free. There is a Poker Den that costs £4 to enter that has bonus features that will give players the edge over non-paying players, but it wouldnt spoil the fun for the non-paying members. I knew if the game was good enough then people will part with some cash and if it wasnt they wouldnt. I wanted players to play Poker Sharks for as long as they wanted for free, and then, if they felt it was worth it, to pay for Poker Den access.

Then a moment of panic - a web address! I didn’t have one, I typed pokersharks.com in, and yep, as I thought it was taken - without pausing I changed it too www.pokersharks.co.uk - SUCCESS! It was available and I brought it there and then. Panic averted.

With this 50-page document in hand I pondered how to make the game a reality. I have a degree in Computer Science and have some web design experience but not enough to take on a task as ambitious as this. I was going to need outside help. I began trawling the web for web designers and getting quotes. I approached dozens of companies with quotes ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous (tip for anyone wanting a web site done - shop around, it will save you a packet!).

Not only did I want a professional, slick, perfect in every way website I also wanted fantastic looking Poker Sharks. Off I went to go and find a cartoonist that could bring my Poker Sharks to life. Didn’t take long until I stumbled across a company called Curtoons who have a great portfolio proving thy were more than up for the job. Within a few weeks I had the finished designs and I couldn’t have been happier, now all I needed was a website...

After much deliberation I decided on a company called Small Oranges who are based in Scotland in the UK. They ticked every box, from price to attitude to personality.

Within the month they were working hard on turning my design into a living, breathing web site. Just 4 weeks in and the bulk of the site was done. My rough sketches were coming to life and it looked better than I ever imagined. It wasn’t long until the site could go live, I couldn’t believe that people could be playing in a matter of days.

I took a step back and was determined not to rush things. As much as I wanted things to happen yesterday I knew if I rushed it could end in mistakes that would just annoy my future players. Which is why I decided to have 1 month of beta testing before the game started seriously.

Then it began all began in July 2005 and Poker Sharks was available for people to play. The site was going to be live for 1 month to iron out bugs and errors and the entire site was free. I didn’t want to accept a penny if the site didn’t work perfectly.

The site attracted lots of attention and feedback was excellent. It seemed my idea wasn't just good in my head as more and more players signed up to play. Of course there was a different problem each day and the game seemed to have a mind of its own at times! In one month we had over 100 players, a modest number but not bad at all. Soon Beta testing was over and we were ready to go live.... properly.

SEPTEMBER 7TH 2005 was the start of Season 1 in Poker Sharks. Straight away virtually everyone from beta testing came back to play which was a massive boost. The fact players wanted to come back proved the game was fun to play and we were one step closer to having a successful game.

On virtually the same day another Poker site was launched, they had a marketing budget of £7million just for the first year. Attracting players was going to be tough with competition like this!

I set aside a few pounds a day for advertising which was bringing in a steady flow of around 10-20 players each day. I was always looking for good value advertising and found a few opportunities that increased signups to 50+ per day. We even won Cool Site of The Day for December 9th, which also boosted signups for a few days!

My aim was 1000 players for Season 1, which was going to last for 3-4 months. 2 months in we hit the 1000 and it was growing steadily. It was looking good.

The main problem now was keeping the site running fast. Interest had grown so much that the site was running slow at certain times of the day. A few emails to our hosts magically sorted that problem - a free upgrade is always nice.

I'd had numerous requests from players for a live poker game so I agreed and it was arranged to meet at another poker site and have a game of poker against each other. Just for Poker Shark chips of course, not real money. A few of the more dedicated players turned up and we had a good game. (It was clear an actual Poker Room would be a huge asset to the Poker Sharks, I really wanted to add it.... yesterday!)

Season 1 came to a close and it was time to make a few last changes. The overall game play and clarity of what to do for new players were all improved in a week of updates, and then there was nothing left to do but to launch Season 2...

20th December 2005 - March 28th 2006 is Season 2. Hundreds of players from Season 1 re-joined and many more were paying their Poker Den Membership which was vastly helping keep the site live and a bit of advertising on the go.

And then we arrive at the present day. Season 2 is running and the signups continue to flow in. The hope of a Poker Room where players can play poker for their play Poker Shark chips is still much alive. The design has been done but as for actual web pages we're still at zero.

If popularity keeps increasing then Poker Sharks is only at the beginning, I have many additions I would love to add and im hoping they too will come true just as Poker Sharks has so far!