Randy Blumer (born October 21, 1958 in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

) is widely acknowledged as having started the multibillion-dollar

online poker Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 t ...

industry with the launch of

Planet Poker A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...

, the world's first real money online poker room on January 1, 1998.

Early life

Blumer was the younger of two boys. In 1970, the family moved to Europe when Randy’s father, Carl, got the opportunity to work as a school counselor on a 2-year exchange in Germany. Blumer started playing poker in Germany in Grade 6 while traveling on road trips with the peewee all-star hockey team frequently returning from trips with additional pocket money gained from playing poker. He made his first trip to

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

when he turned 21 and was exposed to a “new” form of poker (limit

Texas hold 'em Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is one of the most popular variants of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five Community card poker, communit ...

) in both cash game and tournament format. Upon his return to Edmonton he introduced the game to his poker playing buddies. Throughout his time at university, Blumer supplemented his student income by wagering in a variety of formats. Poker was his preferred pastime as it offered both an intellectual challenge and significant financial opportunity. Blumer graduated from the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...

with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering (1983) and found employment as a Marine Systems Engineer in the

Canadian Navy The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; french: Marine royale canadienne, ''MRC'') is the naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack submar ...

. After graduating and finding employment, marriage became the next priority. Blumer married Beverly in Victoria BC on July 26, 1985. His engineering background was used for the majority of his naval career working in Canada’s largest ever warship construction program. He achieved the rank of Lieutenant Commander before accepting an early retirement offer with the intent to make his fortune in online

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

Poker career

Blumer started Planet Poker in the summer of 1997. It became the first online real money

cardroom A cardroom or card room is a gaming establishment that exclusively offers card games for play by the public. The term poker room is used to describe a dedicated room in casinos that is dedicated to playing poker and in function is similar to a car ...

when it converted from a free play site to a real money site on 1 January 1998.Hall of Fame (Roy Cooke)
/ref>

Mike Caro Mike A. Caro (born May 16, 1944) is an American professional poker player, pioneer poker theorist, author of poker books, and casino executive. Author In 1978 Caro contributed 50 statistical tables to Doyle Brunson's ''Super/System'' and wrote ...

and Roy Cooke both joined the Planet team in 1999 to provide their expertise in promoting Planet Poker. He subsequently acted as a poker consultant to several other

online casino Online casinos, also known as virtual casinos or Internet casinos, are online versions of traditional ("brick and mortar") casinos. Online casinos enable gamblers to play and wager on casino games through the Internet. It is a prolific form of o ...

s and cardrooms. His second-place finish in a field of over 6000 players in 2007 in the

PokerStars PokerStars is an online poker cardroom that was a part of The Stars Group until it was sold to Flutter Entertainment on May 5, 2020. It can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for the Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It is the large ...

million was his biggest poker payday to date. Despite all of his successes in the poker arena, Blumer is strictly an amateur player. He has played poker at various venues in England, Ireland, France, Canada, the US and the Caribbean. Planet Poker has reverted to “play for fun” status in response to changes in the legal status regarding real money online poker introduced in 2006 by the United States. Blumer also launched Skillride.com in 2007, the internet’s first play for fun subscription based poker site to fully comply with the

Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) is United States legislation regulating online gambling. It was added as Title VIII to the SAFE Port Act (found at ) which otherwise regulated port security. The UIGEA prohibits gam ...

. He and his wife Beverly have two children (Matthew and Zachary).

Notes

External links

Planet Poker official site

Skillride.com official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blumer, Randy Businesspeople from Edmonton Canadian poker players Living people 1958 births University of Alberta alumni