WPT Celebrity Invitational
What a great weekend! I was invited to represent Absolute at the WPT Celeb Invitational, which I’ve played for the past few years. Tons of people come to this event. Mark Walberg, Marlon Wayons, Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad/Big Love), David Zayas (Dexter), Ricki Lake, Jenny McCarthy, just to name a few, and a ton of pro poker players also. It was a crazy fun night. The tourny begins on Saturday night at Commerce Casino in LA and lasts for 3 days. The first night is normally the fun/party night. We play poker, but if you bust, it’s usually not that horrible since you have a lot of fun people to hang out with.
Going into the tournament I had a really good feeling. I think there were almost 600 people that entered. I had a good time the first day but managed to play good poker as well. I had lots of cool people at my tables. I saw lots of people I normally see at these charity poker events, like the boys from Melrose Place and my friend Brian Peeler from Workout and Sal from E!. We all had fun and some of us made it to day two. Chris Ferguson (Jesus) was also there. Most notable for day one was Kirk Avecedo from Fringe. I really love that show (fan) and he was a great poker player. He actually made it to day two!
I went into day two with about average chip stack. Day two I was totally prepared. No fun and games. I was stoked because my friends Katie Lindsay, Tiffany Michelle and also Liv B also made it to day two. My goal for day two was to be the last woman standing. There were still many people playing, but I had a good run and managed to become chip leader at my table. Next thing I know, Katie, myself and Ricki Lake were the last women in the tournament. I was pretty excited. We were finally down to 3 tables and I moved over to Ricki’s table and took her out. I was pretty amped. After that I started getting cards and playing really aggressive.
To read about the hands in more detail go to this page
Finally we were down to about 10 people. In this tournament, 6 people make it to the final table and that’s all I wanted. I really felt good about it and eventually it was down to 9 of us. I had a poker pro, Thor Hansen, who has won 2 bracelets, LeRon Washington, who is a boxer that won his seat online, and David Zayas, who is on my FAVORITE show Dexter! It felt so good. Long story short, I made it to the last 6, which is the final table. (click on the link above to see exactly how).
The final table shoots this Wednesday and I’m so excited! I’ve never made it to a final table for a WPT event and the first prize is 100k plus a seat into the main event. It’s more than I could have hoped for started out this tournament. I will keep yall posted on what happens at the final table!
Cheers!
T
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Weekly Roundup
Here’s your weekly roundup and congratulations go out to GATOR93, TYSONDUKE23, TAZED1SPURR, DKAU1212, CHILLNDAMOST, KEJULES10, REBUYSEXUAL, MAGICANGLE, MEEELOSH, JEFFBEESDAT, NO NUTS, JEFFGRESSARD, KEJULES10 and KINGKOBEMVP for taking down the big guarantees!
Congrats to our Affiliate Manager of the Year – Danielle Burrows
It was a big year for Absolute Poker in 2009 and an even bigger year for Danielle Burrows, our Affiliate Manager for Chipleader. At the iGB Affiliate Awards in London a couple of weeks ago, she was awarded for her hard work with Poker Affiliate Manager of the Year. What great recognition for her especially being voted and judged by her gaming peers.
The creative and brand teams are working together on the next three month ad campaign and have found a lot of great print and TV ads to get inspiration from.
Old Spice – The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
We tend to lean toward the humorous or clever commercials and print ads, since they grab the attention so well. We have a lot to say about our upcoming WSOP promotions, so be on the lookout starting next week. Woot!
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Cascading and Tiling
Are you bored with the familiar look of our tables? Mac users can now change table skins or felt color and resize tables. Although we’ve always offered these features in our PC version, they are new to our Instant Play and Mac versions.
It’s easy to quickly tile or cascade gaming windows when playing multiple tables at the same time. Just click on any of the three icons located on the upper right-hand side of the gaming window to arrange your tables. PC users will find these icons located above the center of the table, under the Options link.
We’ll be rolling out additional features to bring our Mac software completely in line with our PC version over the coming weeks. Let us know what you think and what you would like to see.
Farewell and tons of luck!
From time to time we are faced with difficult decisions in life. But when you know that the future brings great opportunities, these decisions are made just a bit easier.
The VIP and Loyalty teams just said goodbye to a great host and wonderful friend. Our girl Andrea is spreading her wings and taking on new challenges. She will start working on another of her passions, physical therapy.
Although she left and she will be missed we’ll be in touch and we’ll surely play some poker soon!
I know all of you will join me in wishing her the best of luck on her new ventures!
SuperCross what?
I made the final table of a poker tournament last month and one of my prizes was VIP Section for some race at the stadium in Anaheim. I really had no clue where or what exactly this thing was. My friend Katie, Liv Boree and I took off from Hollywood to Anaheim where we met up with Tiffany Michelle. Apparently this thing was called Supercross and it’s one of the coolest things I’ve been to! First off, this stadium was completely sold out, so the fact that we had these VIP passes, made us feel really cool 
.
Supercross is basically off road motorcycles that race on an obstacle course on this HUGE track, and it’s noisy and there are fireworks and the energy is super high. Loved it. We watched a few races, had a few cocktails and met some fun people! I saw Sal (the E! guy I knocked out of the last tournament I played in) We also met Dominic Monaghan who is on a little show that you might have heard of, LOST. I also got to meet someone that I’m pretty obsessed with, Jeff Probst! Tell me ya’ll know who this guy is. He’s the best host that’s ever been on television. He is the host of Survivor, he’s won Emmys, he’s just a bad ass and SO handsome!
There are really only 3 people on tv that I’m just a tad bit obsessed with. Anderson Cooper (I mean…the silver fox…come on!), Joel McHale (I’m a sucker for funny guys), and Jeff Probst. We talked about Survivor and he genuinely loves the show. He’s not arrogant about it or anything. He was actually a normal, nice guy. But the best part was that he knew who I was! I guess anyone who is involved with reality tv sort of knows the characters, but it still made me happy. I definitely blushed a little (a lot).
After I acted like the biggest fan ever, we went down to the Pits to check out the bikes and be closer to all the action. Katie talked one of the guys to let us on one of the race bikes and took us around for a ride! It was awesome, except I had a dress on, which was just awkward. We took pics (see below) and had a great time. Great night. Glad I got 6th in that poker tournament so we could experience all of that, because there’s no way we would have done it on our own. I had such a good time I’m thinking about getting my own bike! Ok, not really, but I might actually go to another race.
Sharon Osborne Colon Cancer Foundation Charity Poker Tournament
The first weekend of February, I was invited to play in this tournament which took place at the Hard Rock in Vegas. Saturday morning, Katie, myself, Shaun Sipos (Melrose Place) and Nicholas Gonzales (Melrose Place, Mental, lots of things) all met at Burbank airport for bloody marys and mimosas. A few minutes later, we see Tiffany Michelle and Joe Reitman, who were on the same flight. Already I know it’s going to be a good night.
Katie and I had planned on flying in for the tourney and taking the last flight out from Vegas to Burbank, which was about 9 pm. We all arrive to Hard Rock and have a quick dinner/drinks at Pink Taco. Yum. After dinner, we go to the tournament room where I find at my table the two Melrose Place boys, Lou Diamond Phillips, Cheryl Hines (LOVE Curb Your Enthusiasm). I was pretty excited just to listen to Cheryl talk. She’s hilarious and she’s not a bad poker player either.
I started off playing pretty tight. These charity tournaments normally have lots of people that really have no clue how to play poker. I figured it was better for some of those people to be weeded out before I really started to play. About an hour into it, I won a pretty big hand against Nicholas Gonzales that gave me a pretty nice stack (thanks Nick). A few hours after that we moved tables and shortly after I was chipleader at my table. By that time, most of the people we were there with had busted and Katie reminded me that our flight leaves in like an hour. At that point, there were 3 tables left and I was probably 6th in chips overall. I decided it was time to shove next hand, if I went out, I was making my flight, if I won, then I would really start playing and change my flight. I shoved with 10 7 spades and had 2 callers (crap!) AQ and KJ. I flopped a set and knocked the 2 people out. I actually did feel bad about that, but that’s gambling.
After that ridiculous play, I got comfortable knowing I was just going to stay the night in Vegas even though I had nothing but the clothes on my back and my purse. Haha. I started playing pretty well. At the final table, there notables such as Sal Masekela (he’s the really cute guy with dreads who does the Daily 10 on E!) Tiffany Michelle, and Sara Jean Underwood (Playmate of the Year). Sara kept shoving, and God bless her, I really don’t think she had a clue what was going on. She was totally just happy to be there. Finally she shoves and I call with KJ and I doubled up. I also took out Sal, which made me pretty sad, because he is just so damn cute. Finally, it came down to me and another guy, who I cannot remember his name. We only played heads up for about 15 minutes, when I shoved with 10 9 clubs. He called with 7 8 and I won with a pair of tens. All in all, I won like 6 bounties, which I gave away to people, and a really nice trophy and some other prizes. It was so cool to win for such a great charity and I gave half my winnings to the Sharon Osborne Foundation. I really hope even that amount helped. It was a fun night. The after party was held at Vanity in the Hard Rock, where I hung with Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho. Love those girls, they’re so fun.
The next morning I flew out to LA and got to watch my SAINTS win the Superbowl. This really could not have been a better weekend.
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Weekly Roundup
Here’s your weekly roundup and we have a big list the week so let’s get right into it! Congratulations go out to APESTYLES, JABOIJEROME, ARE THESE UTZ, DIEMAUSJ5S, S202, BETTYSD, JR2BROWN, FERDI123ZZZ, CASHIUSKLAY, SO_OFFICIAL, JDOGG 20, RDCRSN, ELLWOODINHO and JDPC27 for taking down the big guarantees!
Hooters
When I was on the basketball team at Plattsburgh State, we took a trip to the Bahamas, by way of Florida. While in Florida, we ate at a hooters and I remember the food being good, and the atmosphere being even better.
5 years later I will return to hooters, but not just to eat.
This has been in the works for a few months now, but I will be in attendance at a poker/beer/wings event, sponsored by Absolute Poker. It will be held in Hollywood, CA and will be a blast. I urge anyone who’s reading this and is in the area to come on down.
Basically what it will be is free beer and wings and poker. We will have some poker tables set up, as well as some laptops to play online poker at. And here’s the best part, its all free!
If you don’t play poker, don’t worry. I will be there to help out and teach some things, as well as have an exhibition where I will be playing 6-10 tables at once on the big screen. Also my partners in crime Lacey Jones, and Trishelle will be stopping by to drop some knowledge too.
I am very thrilled to be working with Hooters, I have to give a shout out to Terrance, my publicist for that one. It’s a week away, and already I am starting to get excited. Hope to see you all there.
-Matt
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Little Trip
Many people say it and I could not agree more: “Life is not all about work’’! You gotta find some space to have fun and enjoy the many beautiful things and places this world has to offer.
As many of you already know, the whole VIP team is from and works in Costa Rica, a little piece of heaven located in Central America, really close from Panama. Our country is a completely tropical one and we are famous for our beaches, mountains, volcanoes and many other cool places where you can meet, feel and breathe nature.
Everyone here is pretty aware of how lucky we are and even though any of us has weekends off, whenever we are able to get one, the action begins…
I was the lucky one this past weekend, so I took my stuff and went to this beautiful beach/national park called Manuel Antonio, just 2 hours and 30 minutes away from our capital!
Manuel Antonio is really beautiful and has 5 different white sand beaches and an amazing jungle you can enjoy… I did and also I´ve got some pics to share with you.
Yeah! That little buddy stole some food.
So, do the same. Whenever you got some time, get away from everything and enjoy life! We all know Poker is rough, so a little trip to Costa Rica or any other place won’t hurt you.
Now I am fresh and ready to keep rocking!
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