POKER
INSIDER INTERVIEW
An Interview with Pinhas Romik (Part 1) by Nolan Dalla
The CEO of DuplicatePoker.com discusses how a former international bridge champion
and co-architect of the "Star Wars" strategic defense initiative ended
up in the poker business.
Pinhas Romik (pronounced pin-has rom-ick) has taken many twists and
turns in his 61 years. Born in the former USSR, Romik immigrated to Israel in
1967. Always passionate about games of intellect, he became a Bridge Master
and went on to finish as runner-up in the European Bridge Championships, twice.
He also finished third in the World Championship. Later, Romik abandoned international
bridge competition altogether, choosing instead to advance his career in electronics
and telecommunications. The pursuit of greater knowledge would last two decades.
During the 1980's, Romik and a few of his associates were privileged to work
on the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), better known as "Star Wars,"
a program championed by the Reagan Administration. Romik proposed and managed
development of a system that contributed to the defense of Israel from Ballistic
Missiles. In 1992, Romik founded a Wireless LAN high-tech company, which was
sold to a giant in 1999. Now able to retire, Romik showed absolutely no signs
of slowing down. He was inspired to resurrect his earlier experiences as a Bridge
Master. He founded (and later sold) e-bridge, the world's largest online bridge
tournaments game site. He also succeeded as a player in a few major bridge championships
held in the US and Europe. Then a few years later, when poker exploded in popularity,
Romik saw that the world was about to change again. He had yet another vision
- to create a new skill-based game which would combine the concepts of Duplicate
Bridge and apply them to poker, specifically flop games such as Hold'em and
Omaha. And so, the new game site called DuplicatePoker.com was born.
DALLA: Pinhas - please tell us. What is "Duplicate Poker?"
ROMIK: Duplicate Poker is similar to a regular poker game, with a few notable
differences. In Duplicate Poker you play against the players sitting in corresponding
seats, and not really versus the other players sitting at your table. Yes, you
want maximize your result in every hand at your table: to win as many chips
as possible, or to lose minimum. But in the end, your skills are judged based
on how you competed against the other players who were facing identical circumstances.
There is virtually no luck involved in Duplicate Poker, since each player in
the corresponding seats is dealt identical cards. It is up to you, not the luck
of the draw, to make the most of the cards you have.
DALLA: When did you launch the game site called DuplicatePoker.com?
ROMIK: The website is less than a year old. We began Beta-testing last spring
and launched in the summer of 2007. We already have both play-money and real-money
games at DuplicatePoker.com. We run tournaments, sit n' goes, and cash games
which are called "quick play" matches. We have freerolls and sign-up
bonuses for new players. The site runs 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. We
are pleased to see how fast we have grown in such a short period of time.
DALLA: DuplicatePoker.com is based inside the United States. How is
this possible? Aren't all the poker sites based overseas?
ROMIK: DuplicatePoker.com is not a gambling site. It is skill-based gaming.
So, laws and prohibitions against gambling do not apply to our site. While some
states (13 in all) restrict skill-based gaming as well, we are legal in most
jurisdictions inside the United States. We only operate in the 37 states where
we are legal. Furthermore, funding player accounts through player's bank is
legal at DuplicatePoker.com. We accept MasterCard, Visa, and American Express.
We are a company registered in Delaware and we are based in New York City. We
also have offices in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and overseas.
DALLA: For the CEO of an online poker company, you have quite an eclectic
background. Tell us your story.
ROMIK: I was born in Belarus, which at the time was part of the former Soviet
Union. When I was a boy, my family left for Poland, where we lived for almost
ten years. But my family always had dreams of moving to Israel. After the Six-Day
War occurred in 1967, we had the opportunity to immigrate and I have been here
for the past forty years.
DALLA: What did you do when you arrived in your new homeland?
ROMIK: I attended and later graduated from Tel Aviv University. It's interesting
because Tel Aviv University is the alma mater for everyone in my family. My
wife graduated from there. My two sons also earned their degrees from there,
one in Engineering, the other in Mathematics. I earned my degree in physics.
After that, I was drafted into the Israeli Defense Force, mandatory service
for all Israelis.
DALLA: Were games a big part of your life when you were growing up?
ROMIK: Oh yes! My first love was soccer, which is no surprise since soccer
has been the passion of just about every child in Europe ever since I can remember.
As I got older, I became more attracted to mind games, and card games in particular
- like Canasta and Bridge. I first started to play Bridge when I was only 12.
I became a very good player at quite a young age. When I was age 19, I was picked
to be on the Polish National Bridge Team.
DALLA: When did you start to take bridge more seriously?
ROMIK: When I moved to Israel, bridge for me was still just a hobby. But
then, I was selected to be on the Israeli National Bridge Team and my team finished
as the runner up in the European Bridge Championship. Then, the following year
we were the runner up again. We also qualified for the World Bridge Championships.
We finished as the runner-up in that, too. What was really interesting and unusual
was that all of us on the team were relatively young. We were all in our 20's
and 30's. Bridge has been an older persons' game for quite some time. But we
were the first young people to really make a splash on the international bridge
scene. Since that time, I have been fortunate to win many prestigious bridge
tournaments, including North America Bridge Championship and the European Bridge
Championship in the seniors' category.
DALLA:
Perhaps the most famous bridge player in the world is the actor Omar Sharif,
from Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia fame. Did you ever play with Mr.
Sharif?
ROMIK: Yes, I know Omar and played against him many times on different occasions.
Omar is a very good and experienced tournament player. We played years ago in
the prestigious Sunday Times Bridge Tournament in London, and there was a photograph
from this event of Omar with me.
DALLA: I have been told that it is not really possible to support oneself
as a professional bridge player. Is that right?
ROMIK: That's almost true; there is a very small number of bridge players
who make their living from bridge only. There is not a lot of money to be made
playing bridge. People play the game for different reasons, for the love of
the game, to be part of a social group, but not so much for money. Maybe that
is why bridge is dominated now by an older crowd, as young people have many
other recreational opportunities. After I was out of college, I was working
as an engineer for an electronics company. The trouble was, bridge was taking
up much of my time. And I was also raising a family. So by 1979, I had to quit
playing Bridge competitively to focus on other priorities.
DALLA: Priorities such as being a husband, raising two sons, and establishing
a highly-successful career?
ROMIK: Yes, that is one way of putting it. From 1974 through 1992, I worked
at Tadiran Electronics Industries, which was the largest electronics firm in
Israel. I started out as an engineer and worked my way up to the executive level.
Our firm designed, manufactured, and sold military and civilian communications
and electronic equipment. I spent 20 years working in electronic technologies,
microelectronics, electro-optics, command, control, communications and intelligence
(C3I) systems, ballistic missiles defense, military communications systems,
consumer radio technologies, manufacturing, logistics and TQM methods for Tadiran
Electronics. To this day, I remain involved in several important projects in
this area.
DALLA: I remember when the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was first
proposed in the mid-1980s. It was very controversial. Critics mocked the idea.
How did you get involved in what would became known as "Star Wars/"
ROMIK: I was appointed by my company to manage SDI activities. In a short
time we proposed to build an interesting system that received the support of
the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the SD Organization. The system is operational
and continues to flourish until this day.
DALLA: I believe you were commended for your contribution, by none other
than (then) Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, who is now Vice-President. Is
that right?
ROMIK: Yes, on the occasion of the system being commissioned to its Initial
Operating Capability, Dick Cheney, then US Secretary of Defense, and Moshe Arens,
then Israeli Minister of Defense, awarded me with a plaque for development of
the system.
DALLA: What happened next?
ROMIK: In 1992, I left Tadiran to start a new venture. This was the time
when cell phone technology was just about to change everything. I founded a
company called RDC Communications, which has since become a worldwide leader
in wireless data communications, now selling its products in over 20 countries.
At RDC, I served as the President and CEO, and was the Executive Director. In
1999, RDC Communications was sold for a nice profit to Marconi Communications,
a UK-based firm.
DALLA: Right then and there, many people would have taken the money
and ran, but you decided to do something new and different. There is some irony
in the fact that you also came around full-circle. Tell us about that.
ROMIK:
Like I said earlier, I had not really played bridge for 20 years. There were
many things I missed about the game, but I was so busy. When I sold off my business,
I was then presented with a new opportunity. I thought about this as a real
junction in my life and was thinking about ways to start a new enterprise. I
really like to create things. I like to build things. That's just the way I
am. Whatever I did, I wanted to combine being a service company with an Internet
technology and immerse myself in something that I knew very well. So, I started
a company called e-bridge, Inc. (later known as Duplicate, Inc.). We attracted
investors and built a site that grew into the largest tournament bridge site
on the Internet. After about four years of working to build e-bridge, I sold
the company to Worldwinner, Inc. which is the largest pay-to-play skill-based
game site in the world.
DALLA: What are the major differences between bridge players and poker
players?
ROMIK: First and foremost, people in bridge are not used to playing for
money. Yes, there are people who do play bridge and compete for money and there
are bridge clubs all over the world where this takes place. But most bridge
players play in order to earn Master Points and achieve a higher standing. They
play for the intellectual challenge. Bridge is about problem solving and immediate
gratification. Of course, poker is quite different. Then, there are the differences
in the players, such as their ages. The average bridge player in America is
in his (or her) late 60s. As you know, in poker the average age seems be a player
in his 20's. All of them have personal computers and are used to playing online.
That's one of the things that give Duplicate Poker such great long-term potential.
Poker players are already used to the technology. Our mission now is to welcome
them to the game.
Note: In Part 2, Pinhas Romik reveals what initially attracted him to poker
and why he is convinced Duplicate Poker will appeal to many poker players.
Duplicate
Poker.com
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Nolan Dalla has been a frequent contributor to PokerPages.com for nearly ten years.
He is the Media Director for the World Series of Poker. He also serves as Director
of Communications for DuplicatePoker.com. Dalla co-authored the best-seller "One
of a Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stuey ' the Kid' Ungar, the World's Greatest Poker
Player," available in bookstores everywhere.
