Interviews

Success in the game of poker can mean both on and off the felt and Kansas resident Brent Christy has defined how to do just that. He is not only a sponsored player but a winning live player, winning online player and professional poker coach. From learning the game with a group of friends playing sit-n-go's to becoming a successful poker professional, Christy's drive has made him a valuable proponent for the poker industry.

Talk about a big first impression. That was Tiffany Michelle, the "hot chick" behind the big stack, playing her way through most of the 6,844 entries in the World Series of Poker's 2008 main event, finishing 17th and going home with $334,534 in prize money.

As the last couple days of the no-limit hold 'em championship began, one of the Harrah's officials confided to a news media acquaintance, "We're really hoping Tiffany makes it to the final table."

Mohegan Sun Poker Director Bruce Dixon says it was just one of those things, him being at the right place at the right time to discover a life changing opportunity.

He was wandering through one of the Atlantic City casinos shortly after poker came to the casinos there on June 25, 1993. Dixon was about 20 at the time and not a gambler. Neither was anyone in his family, but how could he resist the inviting noise and crowds associated with the big casinos?

Our fearless reporter, Jennifer Matiran, caught up with Annie Duke a while back and the result is this multi-part interview. Part 1 ran last issue, and we'll wrap things up next time. But for now, here's a chance to hear Annie Duke expound on teenage poker phenomenon Annette Obrestad and a plethora of other subject too.

JENNIFER: What do you think of Annette Obrestad, who just won the WSOP Europe Tournament?

In your wildest dreams, could you ever imagine your grandmother as boss of your favorite poker room? Since 1998, Lil Duquaine, appropriately nicknamed Tiger Lil, has been a driving force in Wisconsin's poker scene as the Table Games Manager for Menominee Casino Resort's Forest Edge Poker Room, no small feat for this mother of three and grandmother of two-soon to be three.

Terry Chiaradio is excited. She's telling me about the Mega Stack Challenge that she and her team recently implemented at Foxwoods. We held our first event last month," she said. "It's a $3,000 buy-in tournament, but we have satellites and a qualifier to make it affordable and allow as many players as possible to enter. Players can buy into a satellite for as little as $100 and win entry into a $400 buy-in qualifier. They can also buy in to the qualifier directly, or buy into the main event for $3,000. We paid $207,000 for first place.

Pete DeMonte was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on July 7, 1954. He graduated from Bullard Havens High School in 1972 followed that up with a couple years at Norwalk Technical College.

In 1977 Pete joined the local fire department as a full time fire fighter until his retirement in June 1998. In July 1998 he and his wife, Diane moved to Las Vegas.

That move was something that they had planned on doing for years. Pete and Diane spent their honeymoon in Las Vegas back in 1982 and from that time on they vacationed in Las Vegas about twice a year.

Jimmy "Gobboboy" Fricke from Champaign, Illinois has been playing poker for about two years and dropped out of school to play full time. He recently made a name for himself after he cashed in two major events inside of eight days. The 19-year old internet pro took 22nd place at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas then flew halfway around the world to Melbourne, Australia where he took down second place at the Aussie Millions. Although he lost to Gus Hansen heads-up, Gobboboy won $1 million (Australian dollars) in the process.

DIRECTOR OF POKER OPERATIONS FOR THE SENECA CASINOS

Spencer Gauthier began his career in gaming in 1992 as a dealer at the Menominee Casino in Wisconsin. Since then he has worked in various casinos in Wisconsin, California and New York before rising to Poker Room Manager at the Seneca Casino Niagara last year. In October he presided over the expansion of the Niagara"s poker room and recently took time out from his busy schedule to answer questions from Poker Player"s Gary Shenfeld.

Richie Lopez was born on a military base in Ft. Lewis, Washington on December 5, 1971. On Christmas day with baby in tow his family returned to their hometown of San Jacinto, California. In 1992, Richie took a Security position at Soboba when it was just a Bingo Hall. He left Soboba to pursue a career in forestry but left the forest in 1994 when Soboba reopened as a casino. At the time there were no security positions available so he started as a poker dealer.