Together with his father, Barry Shulman, Jeff Shulman is behind the newfound success of Card Player Magazine.

The history of the Shulman's involvement in poker publishing is as follows: Card Player Magazine launched in 1987, and was aimed exclusively at advanced poker players. Barry discovered it in 1998 and believed that it could not reach its full potential by serving such a niche market. He approached the owners with the intent to purchase the company, and after one offer of several million dollars the magazine was in Barry's hands.

Later, Barry bought Poker Digest for $800,000 in an effort to kill Card Player's competition. It worked. In 1999, Barry included Jeff in the operation and, Jeff, in turn, brought with him a passion for the game, youthful energy, and competent associates and friends.

"I came out in October 1999 and I didn't know much about the industry," remembers Jeff. "But I befriended a lot of poker players because they're young hot shots like myself. But the reason [Card Player] is successful is because [Barry] is crazed. He's 56 years old, works eighteen hours a day, and always has ideas. I've never seen someone so excited about a business."

Jeff addresses the magazine's new image. "It will be a cross between People, Sports Illustrated and Card Player Magazine. In the past, the typical article was about how to increase your hourly earnings. In the future, we'll show what the best players do outside of poker. We want someone who has played only one or two times to read it all the way through. There is no better story than someone who invests $20 and walks away with $1 million."

In the past three years, the father-son team has received three buy-out offers. However, they see great potential in the enterprise and have no intention of giving it up. Jeff says: "We expect to make four times more money in five years. We know there's going to be competition, so our job is going to be to make the [magazine] so great, we don't have to worry about competition...I'm thrilled to be in the industry, let alone one of the leaders of the industry."

Despite his heavy involvement with Card Player, Jeff is no slouch at the green felt table. He's been playing the game since childhood, and, among other achievements, has made second place at the Legends of Poker No-Limit Hold'em Championship event, a World Series of Poker final table, and first place at the L.A. Poker Classic No-Limit Hold'em tournament.