I'm sad to say that I won't be staying on as a member of PokerStars Team Online in 2012. It was a great honor and a great experience to be a member of the team, but so much has changed since I joined the team last year. Now that I'm unable to play online from my home country, I'm simply not able to commit to logging the kind of volume befitting a member of Team Online. It's a shame that I only recently, at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, got to meet the other members of the team. They were a fascinating bunch of people, and I loved spending the week with them. My greatest disappointment is that I will no longer be able to call them my teammates. The following is my homage to this extraordinary group of poker players:

I know that there is zero chance of herding fifteen online poker pros into a conference room by 10AM, I tell myself that this is true and that I need not rush, but nevertheless I am there for our PokerStars Team Online meeting at 9:51. I just can't help being early. This gives me nearly an hour to chat with the other "early" arrivers before we finally begin.

They are a formidable crowd. Shane Schleger was already an online MTT hero six years ago, when I was just starting to grind my way up. Today is January 6th, and he has already final tabled the Sunday Million this year. Mickey Peterson, on the other hand, arrived much later than I to the tournament scene but has already put up results that surpass both Shane's and mine.

In 2009, Kevin Thurman set a record by earning 3,055,385 VPPs. That same year, I was down to the wire getting the last few VPPs I needed to cross the 100,000 mark and make Supernova. It boggles my mind that people manage to earn 1,000,000 in a year to make Supernova Elite, let alone that Kevin accumulated thirty times as many VPPs as I did.

Bjorn Schneider, sitting to Kevin's immediate left, broke that record last month. The two of them just met this morning, though apparently they were on the same flight to the Bahamas. Bjorn was sitting immediately behind Kevin and listening to him tell his seatmate about "the guy who just broke my record".

The two players at the table who are more my speed are Adrienne Rowsome and Richard Veenman, both of whom are, like me, mere Supernovas who play about twenty hours a week. Unlike me, however, they both have jobs outside of poker. We later learn that they are the only two working stiffs out of the fifteen of us.

Perhaps the most intimidating character at the table, however, is Anders Berg. Anders has a PhD in Pure Mathematics and three WCOOP bracelets. He also finished second in an event in last year's WCOOP, narrowly missing a record-setting fourth bracelet. Anders is the oldest player in the room, but also one of the most fit. When he introduces himself, he rattles off numerous feats of athleticism alongside his academic qualifications. Though quiet and humble, he gives the distinct impression of having never done anything badly in his life.

Anders is hardly alone in this. The room is full of people who have excelled in other competitive venues besides poker. Andre Coimbra won the Magic: The Gathering world championships in 2009. Randy Lew was a nationally competitive video gamer before taking up poker. Several members of Team Online have a background in high-level chess, and no one is surprised when Anders Berg adds his name to this list.

Despite their geeky interests, these aren't your stereotypical pasty internet nerds. Shane Schleger, Richard Veenman, Tyler Frost, and Diego Brunelli quickly find a common interest in tennis and arrange a doubles match for the next morning. In what sounds an awful lot like a hustle to me, Richard claims to be a beginner but admits to practicing tennis two and a half hours every day. Jorge Limon races rally cars, which he later tells me entails off-roading with modified street cars and which sounds pretty damn dangerous. Adrienne Rowsome is a serious yoga practitioner and plays slo-pitch softball, though her league seems to emphasize drinking more than any other aspect of the game.

I am struck by what a great job Pokerstars has done of selecting individuals who are serious about online poker but also well-rounded and interesting people. I am looking forward to seeing as much of them as possible during the week we're about to spend together at the Atlantis resort (though I would have preferred not to have them sitting next to me in the main event, which is where both Bjoern and Jorge end up).

They are good players, to be sure, but they are not necessarily the best or the most famous on the site. This is the moment when the meaning of Team Online crystallizes for me: these folks are workhorses. They are driven, and they log serious volume online without putting the rest of their lives on hold.

Barry Greenstein and Daniel Negreanu fill an entirely different niche. They are superheroes, impossibly successful professionals to whom the average PokerStars player can look up but probably can't relate. This isn't to say that Greenstein and his fellow Team Pro members don't work hard. I'm sure they do. I just think that they also possess some innate talent that separates them qualitatively from the vast majority of poker players, no matter how dedicated.

Every Batman needs a Robin. With a few exceptions (cough, Randy Lew, cough), most Team Online players represent attainable goals. They make good money, to be sure, but for most it has more to do with hard work than superhuman talent. Players who saw the red spade on my avatar sometimes told me, in accusatory fashion, that they'd never heard of me. I'm realizing that was kind of the point. Your average Team Online member is an ordinary person who's had extraordinary outcomes by taking advantage of the game selection and VIP rewards available on PokerStars.

Spending a week with these extraordinary poker players is both intimidating and inspiring. On the one hand, their passion for poker is contagious. Each of them represents a unique twist on what's possible with hard work and dedication. Then again, the shear amount of hard work and dedication required by some of their more impressive feats (Kevin Thurman tells me he played 24 tables, 10+ hours a day, 7 days a week for an entire year to set his record) is enough to make you run screaming for the nearest lazy river.

Thankfully the Atlantis has a great one of those, and my teammates do find time to float and enjoy the beautiful weather in the Bahamas. More than a few are anxious about falling behind Supernova Elite pace so early in the year, and swapping intelligence about where to get the best wireless signal during VPP Happy Hour is a popular topic of conversation. You can take the player out of the game, but you can't take the game out of the player, and this bunch are players through and through. It was an honor to play alongside them, even if I didn't meet them in person until our time together was nearly up.

Richard "Tzen1" Veenman isn't like your typical member of Team PokerStars Online. Veenman, who signed on to represent PokerStars last January, splits a part-time IT job in the Netherlands with his chase toward Supernova Elite on PokerStars every year. And, unlike most online poker pros who specialize in no-limit hold'em games, Veenman spends the majority of his time on the virtual felts min-raising opponents at fixed limit hold'em cash games.

Veenman is very active on Twitter and chronicles his poker endeavors in his blog at Tzen1.com. We recently caught up with Richard to discuss why limit hold'em is his game of choice, how his life has changed since joining PokerStars, and more.

Like many top poker players, you began your competitive gaming career playing Magic: The Gathering. Tell us about how you made the transition from Magic to poker.

I haven't made the direct transition from Magic to poker like many other former Magic players did. When I used to play Magic I was very competitive in it but I was still young and the poker scene as we now know it wasn't there yet. I was 12 when I started playing Magic and did pretty well but I stopped playing in 2000 when I was 18. I did move into other games but my main focus was pursuing my career in IT. I did already play poker back then but they were fairly small home games. I tried it online back in 2001 but there wasn't a real drive to get better at it since there wasn't a lot of information about the game and also not many people were playing it back then.

There has never been very long stretches of time in which I wasn't trying to be competitive in a game. When World of Warcraft launched I started my own guild with a lot of good friends and played that on a competitive level for almost three years. When the poker boom began in the Netherlands around 2005 or 2006, it was a logical next step for me as I already knew the game so I was way ahead of most other people who only just knew the game from TV. The thing I took from Magic was probably the strategic element which both games have. The thing I took from World of Warcraft was the fact you get better the fastest by reading and sharing information through forums and other communities. At first I was still only playing live but as soon as I created an account on PokerStars I moved most of my play to online and that was basically the start of my poker career.

You spend most of your time playing fixed limit hold'em games on PokerStars. Is that your favorite variation of poker or do you play it solely because it's your best game?

It is my best game for sure and when it comes to cash games I prefer it over any other game. I do like to play some razz or deuce-to-seven triple draw as well but I play those games mainly for fun. I've thought about switching to other games many times before but I just really like the fast pace and multi streets action in FLHE. If you are grinding for 12 hours on 16 tables and you don't like the game you are playing I think it's really hard to stay motivated just for the money. I think that's why in the end I also always stayed with FLHE.

I do still like to play tournaments as well and no-limit tournaments are way more fun than fixed limit. There is no better feeling then winning a tournament so for sure I will keep playing tournaments, especially during the PokerStars SCOOP and WCOOP. Unfortunately, because was on holiday, I couldn't play any of the TCOOP tournaments.

Are there any players and/or friends that have helped you become the poker player you are today?

The thing I have with games is that I don't only want to play a game by myself. I always want to play it with my closest friends. That's what I did when I was playing Magic and World of Warcraft, but the same also counts for poker. I picked up poker together with my friends and at the beginning just talking about the game got me motivated and enthusiastic to learn more about it. Nowadays, most of those friends only play the game occasionally for fun but one of my best buddies is still playing. Being able to talk about poker with one of your best friends is really the easiest way to keep eager to learn and stay motivated to play. I still talk with him almost every day and in the year I made Supernova Elite he kept calling me when I was slacking to make sure I didn't fall behind pace too much. We've also been going to Vegas every year since 2004 and probably without him I would have never gotten this far in poker. We've been to the PCA together this year as well and we will go to the WSOP later this year.

You've been a member of Team PokerStars Online for a year now. How has that experience been for you? Any memorable or exciting experiences?

Being a member of Team PokerStars: Online has been an awesome experience. Being able to represent a company which is No. 1 in the market and is known by almost anybody just always gives me goose bumps when I talk about it with other people. I think it's still a dream of many poker players and I'm very happy that I've been given the chance to promote PokerStars via my blog and Twitter. It was a turbulent year for poker but in general I only had positive experiences as member of PokerStars Team Online.

At the PCA we had a Team Online get together and I finally got to meet all the other Team Online members which was really great. PokerStars had also organized a Team Online scavenger hunt, where people had to find 15 Team Online Members to earn a ticket for a six-max sat-and-go which could win you a $10,000 Tournament Ticket. When we got out of the meeting room where we had this get together there was this young kid who saw all the Team Online members standing in the same spot. He looked at us, looked at the card he was holding with all our pictures, looked at us again and you could see the twinkles in his eyes. Unfortunately we had to tell him that the scavenger hunt would start two days later. That was a really memorable experience and I've had many more at the PCA and during last year.

How did the working relationship with PokerStars come about?

I've always been an active blogger and in 2010 PokerStars was looking for people who could represent their online team. In 2010 I also made a run for Supernova Elite in a game which not a lot of people still play these days, fixed limit hold'em. I think putting those three things together was exactly the thing PokerStars was looking for. There were of course already many PokerStars Pros who represent the site but a lot of these people are live players who only play online occasionally. PokerStars, however, is an online poker site so it just makes a lot of sense to also attract Pros who are really an example of the core of what PokerStars is all about: grinding online. PokerStars liked me for what I did and I liked them for what they stand for so when I was asked if I would like to sign for PokerStars we got to an agreement pretty quick.

What were some of your poker goals going into 2012?

My main goal for this year is to make money. It's really as simple as that since in the end that is still the most important thing. My normal grind will still be fixed limit cash games and lately I've been cutting down the amount of tables I'm playing in order to play a little higher again. I would be happy if I could finish this year as a winner at the low or mid-stakes again but I'm also planning to have some fun along the ride. Playing the SCOOP and WCOOP and going to the WSOP again this year to play some tournaments are definitely the things in which I have the most fun in poker. I also want to try a little harder in qualifying for EPT's, something I haven't really done the last couple of years so I'm curious how well that will go.

You work part-time job as an IT-architect for a financial company. How do you manage to balance time between work and poker?

Basically it is the fact I have a job on the side that really creates balance. When I told my boss that I wanted to work part-time he wasn't really happy about it. My hope was that when I proved myself I could make enough money in poker, I would switch to poker full-time. However, since the moment I did both things part-time, I have loved it and I'm not really planning on changing it anytime soon. I think in the end any five-day job becomes a grind, it doesn't really matter how much you like it or how much money it makes you. I was lucky enough that I could keep a good position at work while working part-time, but since I've been doing it part-time I'm loving it more than ever before. I've never tried poker as a full-time job but I think if I would play poker for five days a week, in the end it becomes a boring grind as well and the bad swings in poker could also probably affect your mood a lot. It's the fact I have both jobs that keep me in balance.

To balance the time between these two I plan ahead a lot in a big excel sheet. I keep track on how well I actually meet my own planning and making it visible to yourself is really the most important thing to be able to keep balancing things. The obligations I have at my job should be as important as the obligations I have to myself when it comes to playing poker. Most of the time I pretty good in meeting my own planning, however there are times when you chose to do other things. That however is one of the best things about poker compared to a job, you have more freedom so there is no problem if you sometimes take that freedom and enjoy life.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time away from work and poker?

Since September I've been really into tennis. It's something I loved doing as a kid but since I was 16 I haven't been able to play because of two hernias. Strange enough, I think I've never been so fit in my life and I tried to play tennis again in September and for the first time I didn't had any pains in my lower back. The reason I'm this fit is because I picked up cycling a couple of years ago and that's something I still do as well. I've already planned some big cycle tours again with my friends for this year and although my country is really flat, I love doing it.

To relax I watch a lot of TV series. I also watch movies of course and I still like to go out on the weekend with my friends. I'm also a big fan of watching sports on television, especially big events like the Olympics, soccer championships and the Tour de France. Since we have all three of them this year, 2012 is going to be a great year!

A little bird told us that you like to dance. Is that true?

Yeah, I guess that's true. I was never really a dancer when I was young but I did always go to clubs and just bounced a little on the beat. I'm a big fan of dance music and in the Netherlands we have really huge outdoor dance festivals in the summer which I always go to. In Vegas I also like to go to the clubs and listen to R&B and hip-hop and I'm not sure how I managed to suddenly dance to the music. I really love music and when I hear a beat I want to move and when I've had a couple of drinks I'm not really shy to get onto the dance floor. I also learned how to "shuffle" and since that's probably something typical Dutch not a lot of people see that abroad, so I always get a lot of funny faces when I "shuffle" on the dance floor. I just love going out and have fun and music just always gets me going.

In the mid-December I had to put away my grinding sessions for a few days as a filming crew came to my home town - Warsaw. I was very anxious about meeting them and extremely excited about shooting the video. You all have already probably seen Nanonoko's short film by Team Online and I personally loved the gist of it. So when I first heard that the same crew is coming to Warsaw to make the same kind of movie with me I could not be happier about it.

At first, Ryan the director contacted me via Skype and we talked for over two hours about the idea of the movie. We discussed what activities I would like to include in it, interesting venues, participating acquaintances and friends and many other issues. As it turned out, all my regular off-poker activities were placed in the shooting: visiting my close friend, playing basketball and bowling as well as go-cart racing. I really cannot wait to see especially the latter as filming crew has used many different cameras and angles to catch the best scenes of the race. I even had the camera on my helmet! There was a motivating challenge involved in the go-cart racing but I will not tell you now what the result was, you will have to wait until the video is released.

Ryan, Mike (camera) and Greg (sound) decided also to film my home town, Warsaw, the capital of Poland. I am so proud of my city that its name is a part of my PokerStars nickname (DaWarsaw). I was born here 33 years ago and since late 80s I have been watching how it changes. Twenty years ago, Warsaw was actually sad and bleak city so I was thrilled to hear about any new planned building and wanted to know everything about it. There are still many areas that could be developed or modernized in Warsaw but I am already very proud of all the changes I have witnessed.

During those four days, even though the shooting process was really exhausting and we spent about 30 hours making the video, I had a blast. The crew was great and I had a lot of fun with them. I truly hope that they liked Warsaw and will have only good memories and experiences to share about it. After all, it's the movie about Warsaw and DaWarsaw!

Poker players and poker fans flocking to the Caribbean in January 2012 will have the chance to witness the making of poker history. PokerStars Team Online member Randy "nanonoko" Lew has announced that he will be attempting to set or break a Guinness World Record: number of hands played in a certain time period.

"It was an idea that my Team Manager had," Lew told us, "and it seems like good timing since I just came back from the Macau tournament. And I won." Typical understated nanonoko. That "Macau tournament" was last month's APPT Macau Main Event where Lew won his first major live title and close to a half-million dollars in prize money.

A couple of weeks later, the PokerStars staff broke new nanonoko news in a thread on TwoPlusTwo entitled, "Help Choose Randy 'nanonoko' Lew's World Record Attempt!" The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure will be the theater in which the record-setting performance is staged, and the poker public has been given the chance to determine the nature of the record up for grabs. There were essentially just two rules for the submissions:

1) The record must be poker authentic (and preferable online poker authentic)
2) The record must be easily understood by the public.

During the days following the initial post, the forum exploded with ideas covering an enormous breadth of plausibility and intrigue. Suggestions ranged from 'most flushes made in an hour' to 'most money won underwater' to 'multi-tabling 24 full-ring cash games -- live!' One recurring theme were ideas centering around the 'most hands played in X hours', and that seems to suit nanonoko's playing habits well. Here are some of the other provocative suggestions lining the pages-long thread:

For his part, nanonoko seemed game for whatever challenge the record books present him.

"I would be up for something that was endurance-based," he jumped at the question. In the next breath, though, he mitigated that comment by adding, "but it might not work very well at the PCA. I like the idea of doing a straightforward challenge, because it has to be clear for the Guinness World Records. Nothing too crazy or fancy."

Nanonoko will have to balance the record with playing a full schedule of events over the course of the ten-day festival in Paradise. "It'll be tiring, I'm sure," he said without a hint of concern in his voice. "I love the resort, though, to be honest. They got a lot of good food choices there, and the beaches, and the watermark. You really don't have to leave the resort. At the PCA, you can do everything right there on the resort."

Just a couple of days ago, PokerStars made the announcement: "On January 8th in the main tournament room at the PCA, Randy 'nanonoko' Lew will attempt to set the record for the most hands of online poker played in a certain time period. The starting time and length of the record is to be determined."

Right now, Lew says he's game for six or twelve hours.

Stay tuned. We'll be on hand to cover the attempt next month at Atlantis.

Poker players and poker fans flocking to the Caribbean in January 2012 will have the chance to witness the making of poker history. PokerStars Team Online member Randy "nanonoko" Lew has announced that he will be attempting to set or break a Guinness World Record: number of hands played in a certain time period.

"It was an idea that my Team Manager had," Lew told us, "and it seems like good timing since I just came back from the Macau tournament. And I won." Typical understated nanonoko. That "Macau tournament" was last month's APPT Macau Main Event where Lew won his first major live title and close to a half-million dollars in prize money.

A couple of weeks later, the PokerStars staff broke new nanonoko news in a thread on TwoPlusTwo entitled, "Help Choose Randy 'nanonoko' Lew's World Record Attempt!" The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure will be the theater in which the record-setting performance is staged, and the poker public has been given the chance to determine the nature of the record up for grabs. There were essentially just two rules for the submissions:

1) The record must be poker authentic (and preferable online poker authentic)
2) The record must be easily understood by the public.

During the days following the initial post, the forum exploded with ideas covering an enormous breadth of plausibility and intrigue. Suggestions ranged from 'most flushes made in an hour' to 'most money won underwater' to 'multi-tabling 24 full-ring cash games -- live!' One recurring theme were ideas centering around the 'most hands played in X hours', and that seems to suit nanonoko's playing habits well. Here are some of the other provocative suggestions lining the pages-long thread:

For his part, nanonoko seemed game for whatever challenge the record books present him.

"I would be up for something that was endurance-based," he jumped at the question. In the next breath, though, he mitigated that comment by adding, "but it might not work very well at the PCA. I like the idea of doing a straightforward challenge, because it has to be clear for the Guinness World Records. Nothing too crazy or fancy."

Nanonoko will have to balance the record with playing a full schedule of events over the course of the ten-day festival in Paradise. "It'll be tiring, I'm sure," he said without a hint of concern in his voice. "I love the resort, though, to be honest. They got a lot of good food choices there, and the beaches, and the watermark. You really don't have to leave the resort. At the PCA, you can do everything right there on the resort."

Just a couple of days ago, PokerStars made the announcement: "On January 8th in the main tournament room at the PCA, Randy 'nanonoko' Lew will attempt to set the record for the most hands of online poker played in a certain time period. The starting time and length of the record is to be determined."

Right now, Lew says he's game for six or twelve hours.

Stay tuned. We'll be on hand to cover the attempt next month at Atlantis.

There is just something about Adrienne "talonchick" Rowsome. Maybe it's that she's the girl next door. Maybe it's that she can eviscerate unsuspecting poker opponents in the blink of an eye. Whatever it is, the people with the cameras can't get enough of her.

First, Rowsome was the subject of a much-lauded mini-documentary that's been viewed thousands of times since its recent release. After that--and after Rowsome made the final table of the Canada Cup--Rowsome released a little tongue-in-cheek training video as she prepares for her live final. (It should be noted, the writers of the PokerStars Blog do not appear anywhere in that video, especially in the screen capture below).

Now, Rowsome has hit the screen again, this time as a feature on Canadian TV. We have a copy of her story and interview below (which, thankfully, has no men in their underwear that we noticed).

If you missed Rowsome's documentary video when it first came out, we have it right here.

Finally, if you just can't get enough of talonchick, here's here PCA training video that she put out a few weeks ago.

Hi everyone!

This time I am not going to tell you about my rallying adventures. Instead I´ll talk about my recent appearance in ESPN magazine.

A few weeks ago I went to México City for the photo shoot. I met with Angel Guillen and Christian de Leon, the PokerStars Team Pros from México. First we gave an interview. By now I'm used to answering all these questions which are usually the same, so it's pretty quick and painless, but I can't say the same about the photo-shoot.

The other guys usually take ages, they put sunglasses on, take them off, they change poses and expressions, but my shoots don't go like that. I have to admit that wasn't my first time, I've had some before, included live T.V., but I guess I just have a good poker face, because I don't have many faces in my repertoire, and if they want me to smile they better tell a good joke.

So, the shoot is almost finished and it's time for the cliché poses, particularly the one where you throw your cards, usually aces towards the camera. I bet you have seen that done many times. Well turns out it isn't as easy as it looks. The cards rarely fly in a good angle and direction and when they do you usually have a stupid look on your face, so after hitting the photographer on the face 20 times (if you have ever been hit by cards you know they can hurt), they finally got one that they liked and it was over.

I remember in my interview to become part of the Team Online I was asked if I'd like to be famous, and I pretentiously answered that, in general, I tried to keep my ego at bay. So, I didn't care for fame, but I have to confess that I am enjoying this micro-celebrity status much more than I'd like to admit.

You'll find about a thousand Hollywood directors and producers who will say, "Oh, yes. When I met (big Hollywood star), she was just getting her start, but I knew she was going to be big. Big!" Most of them are liars. But I, my friends, yes, I, a lowly poker blogger felt quite sure more than five years ago that I had found a star. Ask Adrienne "talonchick" Rowsome yourself.

Back then the lady from Edmonton, Canada was one of a sea of PokerStars qualifiers at the World Series of Poker when I snapped her picture. Since then? She's become a member of PokerStars Team Online, final tabled the 2011 $320 WCOOP 8-game event, and made the final table of the Canada Cup.

Oh, and now...she's a star.

The folks at PokerStars.tv spent some time with her recently. Today, they released a short film about the woman we all know as "talonchick."

The fulltime Occupational Therapist and parttime poker player is a verifiable star, and one who is happy to step into the role.

"I take great pride in my jobs, whether it is taking care of patients or representing PokerStars," she said. "My story offers a different perspective of looking at how poker can fit into your life. It provides to the public a really achievable status and goal. I think it also has value to show that a poker career can also coexist with a professional career. They do not have to be exclusive."

With that in mind (while I honestly can't take any credit for it) I give you Adrienne "talonchick" Rowsome, today's star on PokerStars.tv.

If there's one thing you need to know about Kevin Thurman, it's that he slaps adversity in the face. Thurman, 31, has suffered from potentially deadly illness called Lyme disease since he was in college. He's been forced to take on excruciating chemotherapy treatments for several years, stripping away the regular life that most young people get to enjoy.

But Thurman never let the ailment in the way of his life goals.

In 2005, Thurman left his corporate job in search of a line of work that would allow him the standard of living he desired. He was constantly sick and needed a change. That's when he turned to poker. Thurman deposited $500 online and began to grind low-stakes cash games. And as they say, the rest was history.

Four years later, Thurman was playing some of the largest cash games available on PokerStars and had won more than $2 million online under the name "WizardofAhhs." But, amazingly, that wasn't enough. He needed another challenge. Before the New Year began, Thurman set a seemingly unachievable goal to break the record for most VIP Player Points earned in a year.

Twelve months later, Thurman had played more than 5 million hands at PokerStars to shatter the VIP Player Points record. He amassed more the 3 million VPPs -- triple the amount needed to attain Supernova elite status. As a reward for his accomplishments, Thurman was offered a sponsorship deal to become a member of Team PokerStars Online.

Thurman's latest life hurdle came in April 2011 when his job was ripped away from him. As a resident of Texas, PokerStars was no longer available to players in the United States. But, as he's done all his life, Thurman found a solution. He packed his bags and moved to a beautiful setting in Canada to resume his online poker career.

We caught up with Thurman to discuss his move to Canada and how his life has changed in the wake of Black Friday.

You recently moved from Texas to a gorgeous location in British Columbia. How has that transition been for you as a poker player and in your regular day life?



I couldn't be happier with the move. Canada is a beautiful country. I've actually been more active since moving here.  I've found a passion for hiking through the Canadian Rockies.  Back in Texas it's just too hot and flat to do much of anything other than plant yourself directly in front of an air conditioner. 

I had a few misconceptions before moving to Canada. I thought it was going to be a desolate wasteland with a bunch of frozen people walking around saying "eh"' every other word.  I was expecting very little familiarity to my home back in Texas. But it has turned out to be a nicer climate than I anticipated; the people have been fantastic, and they have many of the same stores and restaurants that I'm familiar with back home.

 And as far as poker is concerned, the Internet is perfect up here so it's been business as usual, snappin' necks and cashin' checks!  



You wrote in your blog about some problems you had with your condo after moving to Canada. Tell us about that experience and how you found the house you currently live in now.



It's difficult to choose a new home to live without ever having visited to see it in person, much more ever having been to the city or even the country. I basically just did a Google search and went to the place with the prettiest pictures. Turns out the place I chose was pretty on the surface but it was going through some serious growing pains. With their third set of owners and management in three years, they were a mess and we had to escape. But this time I had a little Canadian experience under my belt so choosing the new location was going to be a little bit easier this time around.  

My new home is located on Lake Okanagan near Kelowna in BC. The area was actually recommended to me by another PokerStars Team Online member, Adrienne "talonchick" Rowsome, who mentioned to me that this area was her favorite in all of Canada, so I started exploring -- online of course, I'm a virtual human. And once again my friend Google brought me to my current residence; the view is breathtaking, the price was right, and I signed on the dotted line.



We read that you studied music theory in college and were in a band. What role does music play in your life?



I'm about to tell you something that I've never told anyone actually. I began playing poker years ago so I could concentrate more on my music. I was working a full time job in the tech industry as a Program Manager after I graduated from college back in 2001 and it was consuming all of my time. I was forced to work very long hours day in and day out. And the worst part about it is it offered very little in the form of creative expression. My soul really needs to communicate through music. And I play all kinds of instruments. Basically if it makes a sound, I will find a way to play it.  

I began really focusing my efforts on honing my poker skills around 2002 to 2003 so that I could make a living solely through the online grind. And the purpose was to regain that lost freedom I had back in college.  I wanted to be my own boss, make my own schedule, and pick up my guitar and belt out a song whenever the hell I felt like it. Poker gave me that opportunity.  



Any other hobbies you enjoy outside of poker?



I'm really getting into photography (and videography), as well as hiking. And the two really go hand in hand because hiking through the mountains here in Canada will instantly turn you into a great photographer, you can't take a bad picture here. I can literally step out on my balcony and take professional level photographs.



You earned Supernova Elite status last year and shattered the VPP record at PokerStars with more than 3 million. How does one play 5 million hands of online poker in a year and not lose his mind?



I told my mom I was going to do it, and no one likes to let their mama down. In all seriousness though 5 million hands is madness!  I still can't believe I did it. I set the goal, told everyone I knew that I was going to achieve it, and I just refused to fail. I told my family that if I ever had to go to the hospital that they'd better put my laptop in the ambulance with me because I wasn't going to fall behind schedule.



What were your goals going into this year and how severely did Black Friday obstruct your progress?



When Black Friday occurred earlier this year, I felt like the smartest man alive. One of the main reasons I grinded my ass off in 2010 was because of that fear, the fear of it all being taken away at a time when I felt like I was in my poker prime. There are a lot of uncertainties in life involving our futures, so I made the ultimate VPP plan to completely sacrifice today for a better and more secure tomorrow. So when Black Friday hit us, I was far from panic stricken as I had already given all I had to give, there were no regrets on my part, and I had earned plenty of money to live comfortably for a long time. I just took a much deserved vacation from the game, I went outside and looked at things that weren't constructed of pixels for a while.  



How has your life changed since becoming a member of Team PokerStars Online?



I've made many connections with people in the poker industry. Up until this point I had been a loner in the online poker world. I'm self-taught, never having had a poker coach or roommate in the past. I had virtually no interaction with other poker professionals until I started grinding to break the VPP record. I was basically was just a faceless avatar behind then handle "WizardOfAhhs" for many years. Team Online brought the person behind the name out of the shadows and I've met great people because of it, so many new friends, students, and opportunities.




Do you plan on traveling to any live tournaments in the near future? What's your favorite stop on the tournament circuit? Any place you'd like to visit?



I'm not really a fan of big cities. I like scenery; beaches and mountains. PCA is probably my favorite spot on the tournament circuit that I've been to so far. Don't get me wrong, I've thoroughly enjoyed going to places such as Prague, Copenhagen, and Madrid in the past, but once I've seen a big city one time I'm ready to move on and generally don't plan on returning. But I've been to PCA a couple of times because of the ocean, and Atlantis isn't buried within the hustle and bustle of a city. The more the location has a vacation resort feel to it, the more inclined I am to attend.  

Woke up early (10am) yesterday morning and got to a yoga class as quickly as I could. I had been during the week but other than that, very neglectful. Class ended at 1140, giving me just enough time to get home, showered and ready to start my tournaments. I have really tried to focus more on cash games, but the weekend tournaments are such good value and hard to stay away from. I Quickly registered in the Women's Sunday, the Sunday Million, the Daily Bigs and some PCA/Canada Cup satellites. Things did not go well. It felt like I had a bounty on my head in each (of course in the Women's I did...), which is a good thing, but I was falling prey to two and three outers galore.

The Canada Cup opened up....and I tried to leave everything else behind me. As always, easier said than done, but a double up KK vs QQ put me in a better mood. I will have to review my hand histories, but after that I didn't have many show downs that stick out in my memory. Just tried to gather small amounts of chips whenever other players were leaving them lying around. I especially got to make my move at the cash bubble, chipping up from 28k to almost 60k without a showdown, it was a great hour or so. Once in the money, there was no question....final table was where I needed to be.

The rest is history...

The incentives offered by PokerStars are awesome. Hotel, flight, spending money in the Bahamas, not to mention....whoever ships this tournament gets to freeroll the 25k high roller tournament. I get really excited just thinking about potential! I slept only for an hour or so last night, will have to get over that ASAP.

So, now I have the "Januar-eh Nine" in my sights, and have some fun preparation work to do because I have every intention of showing this field how an Edmonton girl plays poker. I will dust off a spot on my mantle for the trophy. Stay tuned....I will show you how I train!