John Mehaffey – “PokerAddict”

John Mehaffey grew up in a suburb of Atlanta, GA, called Sandy Springs.  He started playing poker in his early teens in home games among friends.  After success playing smaller home games, he found some bigger games while working in the restaurant industry.  He discovered online poker in 2001 and never looked back.

His first deposit was made at Americas Cardroom.  It was a much different place back then than it is now.  It was a small online poker room that had a large sportsbook player pool due to being owned by Betcris.  He later found some propping jobs and started playing online poker full time by 2003.

John’s first online poker business came after rakeback was in its early days in 2004.  Rakeback was a back-room world where players had to rely on posters in poker forums to help them set up deals.  There was no way to enforce these deals.  They were entirely based on trust and many players got cheated.  John’s idea was to create a rakeback community and he created Rake Rebate Review.  It brought rakeback out in the open and made it a mainstream part of online poker that is still going strong today.

His next business venture came from helping to manage the website BonusWhores.com.  While it was an unusual name, it was a serious business.  Online poker rooms were competing fiercely to draw players to their rooms during the online poker explosion.  BonusWhores helped find the best online poker bonuses for players.  John helped develop content and handled many of the day to day operations of that site.  This move also created an ability to play live poker in casinos for the first time in Deadwood, SD.

John’s next job in the industry was handling player support and content development for Poker Affiliate Solutions.  They are a large rakeback affiliate that offers entrepreneurs an easy way to create an online poker business.

John is now a freelance gaming writer that lives in Las Vegas.  He writes for several poker and casino websites including 4Flush.  When he is not writing, he is spending time with his wife and two children.  He even gets a chance to play live poker from time to time.  His favorite games are Seven Card Stud High/Low and Omaha High/Low.  You may find him at Suncoast or other locals’ poker rooms.  He even makes an appearance in some mixed games now and then.