Cal Spears – President

Cal Spears is a Madisonville, KY native who graduated from Vanderbilt University in the fall of 2003. After graduation he took a job as Internal Marketing Manager for Rivals.com, a major network of college sports community websites. It was there that Spears learned the intracacies and nuances of running a successful online community/content site. Being an avid poker player with a strong entrepreneurial spirit, Spears soon decided to apply his knowledge to the online poker world. He noticed that successful online tournament players were beginning to stand out and realized that a site devoted specifically to online poker players would be very popular. He got together with the right people and in January, 2005, PocketFives.com was born.

At PocketFives.com Spears is in charge of strategical direction, running day-to-day business, and negotiations with poker sites.

Spears has also run a Bar Trivia business since his Senior year of college. He aspires to continue to create and grow new businesses and pursue an MBA when the timing is right. In his free time he enjoys golfing, fishing, and watching as much football as he can. He intends to someday own a horse that runs in the Kentucky Derby.

Adam Small – Chief Editor

A native of Charleston, West Virginia, Adam Small is a graduate of Vanderbilt University. He majored in Computer Science and Math, graduating in 2003. In late 2004, Small teamed with fellow Vanderbilt graduates Cal Spears and Riley Bryant to launch PocketFives.com. The site officially launched in January, 2005, and he has enjoyed working as its Chief Editor since.

Adam is extremely active in the online poker community and played in the 2004 ub.com Aruba Classic, a major live poker event. Small writes the “PocketFives.com Online Report” monthly in Bluff Magazine and has written two other articles for the magazine, a piece focusing on a leader board race among top tournament players for hundreds of thousands of dollars as well as a piece about underage gambling. On PocketFives.com, Small acquires and organizes all site content as well as co-hosting a weekly Podcast. He is also the primary administrator of the PocketFives.com Tournament Player Rankings.

One day, Small wants to buy the summer camp he attended as a child and run it. He would like to see the traditions and memories of camp brought back after it was closed in 2002. In the meantime, he will continue to help run PocketFives.com, pushing it every day towards further success.

Riley Bryant – Technical Director

Riley Bryant grew up in Nashville, TN. He was valedictorian of his high school class at Hillwood High and graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2001 with a triple major in Computer Science, Mathematics, and Classical Languages. After graduating, while working as a contractor for Legalbill.com to design the company’s internal auditing software, Riley returned to Hillwood to teach Latin for half the day at his high school alma mater. Riley went on to become the Senior Programmer at Legalbill.com, and he continued working for the company until early 2006.

In late 2004, Riley began the initial designs for PocketFives.com with Cal Spears, and when the website was deployed in January 2005, he became the company’s co-owner and CTO. Riley’s contributions to PocketFives.com include the design and implementation of the website’s forum software, content management system, player database, and automated rankings. In addition, he serves as administrator for the company’s database and as producer for the PocketFives.com Podcast.

In his spare time, Riley enjoys the arts and has acted in several community productions including shows produced by Circle Players and ACT I, and was honored by The Tennessean with a Best Supporting Actor award for his performance as Marc Anotony in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Riley aspires to reach a level of success such that he can one day become a benefactor of the arts and–when the economic means allow it–return to teaching.

Dan Cypra – Marketing Director

Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Dan Cypra came to Nashville in 1999 to pursue a degree at Vanderbilt University. The Economics major completed his Bachelor of Science in 2002 as part of a joint degree program and then attended the Owen Graduate School of Management, where he received his Masters of Business Administration in Marketing and Human and Organizational Performance in 2003.

He worked at Nashville Shores, a family park located just outside the city limits as the Group Sales and Special Events Coordinator. While there, Cypra hired and supervised park staff in addition to coordinating the efforts of multiple departments. Cypra joined PocketFives.com in May, 2006.

Cypra is charged with directing the media relations and marketing arms of PocketFives.com. His weekly press campaigns and media efforts have helped grow site traffic since he joined. Several new advertisers and sponsors have joined the PocketFives.com family as a direct result of his efforts. He is a frequent contributor to the Podcast and also serves as the primary legislative and lobby group liaison.

An avid golfer and sports fan, Cypra continues to work in the Sports Information department at Vanderbilt University, a position he has held since 1999. He hopes to further his exposure and involvement in this field.

Lenny Sharlet – Head Moderator

Lenny Sharlet is a Tennessee native and resident of Nashville for the past 16 years. He went to Swarthmore College, where he was pursuing a degree in History with minors in Spanish and Latin American Studies. He took some time off in 2000, and his natural wanderlust and tendency towards non-traditional education led him down a different path. He has been a massage therapist, bartender (or mixologist), landscape architect, and park ranger, just to name a few of his adventures over the past few years.

Lenny has always enjoyed games of strategy, and he discovered online poker in the Fall of 2004. After spending most of 2005 playing online, he was very happy to join Pocketfives.com as the first employee of a fast-growing company. The flexibility of working from home, paired with the intellectual challenges and opportunities for creativity of working and writing for an online media company, has been a perfect fit. He looks forward to contributing to the further growth of PocketFives.com by providing top-notch customer service and interesting and innovative content.