13/09/2013. Interview with the Admin of PokerByProxy

Beware! PokerByProxy has stopped paying! Do not invest there!

Hi all! As I have some other plans this evening I won’t be posting a news update until later in the weekend, though don’t worry, my monitor will be updated as always. What I do have for you today however is the following interview with the admin of what has surely been one of the most remarkable new programs to start up in recent weeks. I’m talking of course about PokerByProxy which despite only being monitored for a week has already built up a loyal fan base of enthusiastic investors. A case of the right place at the right time for PokerByProxy and its admin perhaps, but there’s no doubt that there’s an almost tangible appetite in the industry for what they are offering. The main admin’s name is Patrick, and he’s going to talk us through some of the many original and innovative features there. Before we hear from him I’ll just remind you that PokerByProxy is a flexible program with no fixed expiry date on its investment plan (members can basically come and go as they please) and pays a variable rate of profit that fluctuates according to the program’s own fortunes in the world of online and offline poker tournaments where it’s alleged they generate the income. By the way, if you like what Patrick has to say about the program and would like a more detailed explanation of how it all works, you can start with the PokerByProxy review, first published on MNO here:

“1. Hi Patrick, please introduce yourself to the readers of MNO and tell us please about your own involvement in the PokerByProxy the website.

Hi Paul. I’m Patrick, the CEO of PokerByProxy. My role is to oversee the entire project and make sure that everything is going smoothly. I manage the team of poker players, oversee the website operations, and ensure that everyone is doing their job.

2. Can you give us some background information on PokerByProxy? How many others are involved with the program or are you operating alone? How long have you been online and what’s your ultimate aim for the program?

Creating a program like PokerByProxy has been a goal of mine for quite some time, and I’m happy to say that I’ve finally got it online. It took a lot of preparation, from the creation of the website, to establishing a talented team of poker players, but I’m proud to say that the effort has paid off. There are currently 7 of us involved with PokerByProxy:

Myself (Patrick) – CEO of the Program
Jack – Head of Customer Support
Kendall – Operations Manager
Poker Team – Currently 4 Players

PokerByProxy was introduced publicly on September 4th. The goal is to grow the program to the point that our level of investment is as large as our poker team can handle.

3. Explain the investment plan in detail to us. What ROIs are on offer and how is this calculated? I know it’s variable but so far what has been an average or typical payout?

PokerByProxy has one simple investment plan: Variable daily payments based on our gameplay. These payments generally range from -5% to +5% depending on how well we do. We’ve currently been online for one week and so far we’ve had one “loss” day, where we lost 3.8%.

4. You have quite a unique system of compounding for PokerByProxy, and while I’m usually against the practice I quite like your approach to it. Please explain how it works and whether it’s been popular. Do you think it might eventually put a strain on the program’s cash flow?

When coming up with the idea for PokerByProxy, one of the main concerns I had was “what happens if investors aren’t happy with the daily returns?” Since the returns are variable, investors really don’t know how much they will make, and due to the inherent risks of playing poker, are also subject to potential losses. Rather than risking having unsatisfied investors who thought that they were going to make more than they did, we decided that the best option would be to allow investors to withdraw their entire investment if at any point they wanted to. This has proven particularly useful, especially after our first negative return, which resulted in a few angry emails. Those who were unsatisfied were reminded that they are welcome to leave the program at any time.

So far, the response I’ve gotten from users is that they quite like the fact that they are able to withdraw at anytime. It puts our users in control, and allows them to manage their money the way they want. Say you happen to come upon an expense that requires access to your capital right away… with PokerByProxy you can withdraw any or all of your investment at any time, rather than having it locked in for a fixed period. The flexibility has been well received.

In terms of this policy having an impact on our cash flow, I don’t see that as being a major problem anytime in the near future.

5. What are the minimum and maximum amounts to invest? What payment options are you currently accepting? What kind of a payment schedule can members expect for each of these, and explain how BitCoin differs from the others as regards the user’s account.

Our deposit limits vary depending on the payment method. Below is a list of our payment options, along with the corresponding deposit limits

Perfect Money – Minimum $25 – Maximum $50,000
Solid Trust Pay – Minimum $25 – Maximum $9,999
HD-Money – Minimum $25 – Maximum $50,000
Egopay – Minimum $25 – Maximum $50,000
Paypal – Minimum $25 – Maximum $5,000
Bank Wire – Minimum $500 – Maximum $50,000
Interac – Minimum $250 – Maximum $3,000
Western Union – Minimum $250 – Maximum $9,999
Bitcoin – Minimum 0.01 BTC – Maximum 100 BTC

For the traditional e-currencies, payments are processed within 24 hours (though usually sooner). Bank Wire, Interac and Western Union payments are processed in 24-48 hours. Bank wires can take up to 5 business days to arrive depending on your bank.

Bitcoin is very similar to the traditional e-currencies, with the exception that it is denominated in “Bitcoins” rather than USD. There is a separate balance in your account to keep track of Bitcoin investments.

6. How secure is the website of PokerByProxy? What are you doing to protect it and members’ accounts from hackers? Are you on a dedicated server? Who is your host? What kind of anti-DDoS protection do you have?

When it comes to the PokerByProxy website, security is our top priority. We are hosted on a DDoS protected dedicated offshore server with the Panamanian webhost, CCI Hosting. The DDoS protection is provided by our web host. To provide our members with additional security, our website is fully secured via SSL.

7. What kind of script is PokerByProxy running off? Where did you get it, how safe is it, and why do you think this one is most beneficial for you as an admin and your members?

Poker By Proxy is running off of a highly customized version of a script known as the “Ventura Script.” It is sold privately by the developer and is not widely distributed like the common investment scripts that you find out there. We feel that this is paramount when it comes to the security of our website. Unlike other scripts that have known flaws which are easily exploited, our website is unique and safe from such common attacks.

8. Can we see any statistics regarding PokerByProxy? How many members have joined since the beginning and how many are active at the moment? Are you pleased with the support from the members so far? How important a role do they play in bringing in new members?

For the privacy of everyone involved, I generally don’t like to share specific stats about the program, however I can say that I am very happy with the level of growth that we have been experiencing over the past week. So far everyone has been incredibly supportive and the vast majority of our members are committed to seeing PokerByProxy be one of the most successful online investments available.

Our members have also been incredibly active in referring others. In fact, I will share one specific stat with you, and that is that more than 75% of our members were referred by other PokerByProxy members.

9. How can members contact you if they have any questions or support related issues?

If users have any questions, the best way to reach us is to use the contact form on the website. If you have a PBP account, the internal messaging system is also a good choice. Either way, we strive to respond to all inquiries as fast as possible.

10. What have been the most common questions and problems you’ve had to deal with so far? Is there anything you wish to say here so that members can avoid having to contact you later?

One of the most common questions that we receive is in regards to the referral program. While it is explained on the website, I should re-iterate just how it works. Instead of paying a one time commission when your referrals make a deposit, it pays each and every time your referrals make money. For example, if your referral deposits $1000, you won’t receive anything right away. However, lets say they then earn $30 the next day from a 3% result. As the affiliate who referred that member, you would earn $3. As long as the member stays with the program, you will continue to earn on a daily basis. We get quite a few questions regarding this, with members asking why they weren’t paid a referral commission instantly when a deposit was made, however that isn’t how it works.

I think the main reason that this is causing confusion is due to these monitoring sites which have sprung up which offer something called “RCB.” I’m not really familiar with how it works, but it doesn’t seem entirely compatible with our program.

11. How have you been promoting PokerByProxy so far? What advertising strategy have you been using? Particularly tell us about your offline advertisements. How are you getting new members to join?

Here at PokerByProxy, we’re all about making a lasting impression through creative and effective marketing. Our strategy is three-pronged, which I will explain below:

Lucrative Affiliate Program – By offering one of the most lucrative and profitable referral programs possible, we’ve managed to develop a huge team of promoters who are all striving to achieve referral earnings. As we all know, word of mouth is one of the best forms of advertising, which is why we’re so heavily focused on this aspect. In the short time that we’ve been online, we’ve already seen a number of initiatives that have been started by our members in an effort to promote PokerByProxy. One which comes to mind is Youtube videos created by some of our members:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqAD3NMTQNA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_swS-hRpGxk

Traditional Online Advertising – Due to the fact that there is an established industry of online money making blogs/monitors, which consists of websites such as Money News Online, we have purchased advertisements and listings on a number of such websites.

Innovative Offline Advertising – Our third advertising prong is innovative offline advertising. This has consisted of a number of efforts, including hiring students to hand out PokerByProxy flyers in major cities, posting flyers on community message boards, handing out business cards to prospective investors, etc. When our poker players go to the casino, they always bring a large stack of business cards with them. After beating other players at the tables, they hand them a business card, presenting them with an opportunity to earn their money back! We’re currently looking for other offline promotional strategies, and welcome any ideas that MNO readers have to share.

12. Can you tell us about how exactly you are making money with the members investments? Playing poker is something we have all heard before in the HYIP industry, but it was never genuine. Why should anyone believe you this time? What proof can you offer?

As is noted on our website, we make money by playing poker, both online and offline. Investments are pooled together, distributed amongst our team of players, and then brought to the tables. In terms of believing us, that is definitely a challenge. One member suggested that we offer a live broadcast showing our players playing, however that opens us up to the problem of everyone being able to see our cards and play against us. Alternatively we could record all of our sessions, however uploading gigabytes of video from four different poker players would be unbelievably time consuming and difficult. Assuming each of our players play for 2 hours each day, that would be more than 8 hours of video each day, which I am pretty certain that no one would watch.

Meet-ups at live tournaments would be a little more feasible and we will definitely be looking into that in the future.

13. How many players are involved and how many years experience do they have between them? How much time is spent playing online poker and how much in live tournaments? Can you show us your results prior to the launch of the PokerByProxy website?

There are currently 4 members on our poker team, each with a minimum of 5 years experience. Right now, the vast majority of our poker playing takes place online. I would give a rough estimate that about 10% of our playing takes place in live casinos at this time, however we hope to increase that in the future. Playing in person is incredibly different to playing online.

Prior to launching PokerByProxy, we did a one month trial run with all 4 of the members in our team. On average, they managed to achieve 2-3% per day on profitable days, and usually lost 3-5% on loss days. The loss days occurred about 20% of the time.

14. And finally is there anything else you wish to say not covered in this interview? Also please feel free to comment on the review of your program published on MNO. If there was anything you felt was unfair, mistaken, or in any way in need of clarification then you are welcome to explain this in your own words here.

I’m pretty sure we’ve covered everything but if something comes to mind at a later date, I’ll be sure to let you know. I appreciate the opportunity to have PokerByProxy listed on your blog and look forward to the day when we reach spot #1 on the monitor!”

Thanks a lot to Patrick for taking the time to answer my questions, and if the performance and level of interest shown by readers over the first week the program has been listed on MNO then I’d find it hard to believe that PokerByProxy isn’t going to start moving towards the #1 spot on my monitor soon enough. The figures are there to be seen – sustainable plans sensibly managed, and experienced industry players are smart enough to work out the rest for themselves. So that’s about all for today, guys. I’ll be back over the weekend with whatever news stories you should hear about, so I’ll just wrap it up for today by wishing the best of luck to the administration team and more importantly the rank and file members of PokerByProxy. Let’s hope the cards are good to you and it’s a profitable venture for everyone involved. See you all soon, everyone!

review, first published on MNO

Innovative Offline Advertising – Our third advertising prong is innovative offline advertising. This has consisted of a number of efforts, including hiring students to hand out