Grump's Golden Ticket

When word hit a little over a week ago that the Poker Grump had won Dan Cates' Main Event drawing I knew I'd want to have  a Grumpy guest appearance on the vlog and the Grump graciously obliged me with some of his time the other day.  Before we get to the video, some backstory for those who might not be familiar.

Cates is one of the most recent (and perhaps the last) online poker wunderkinds.  Cates established himself as a successful high stakes heads up no limit player online and was reported to have amassed over five million dollars in online winnings in 2010 alone.  Had Cates spent much time playing live, you might ask.  Well, not in the US at least because Cates accomplished all of this before turning 21.  In fact, the 2011 World Series of Poker is Cates' first run at the poker world's premier series since before then he hasn't been of age to enter any events.

To commemorate his first WSOP main event, and as a means to give back to the poker community, Cates decided to hold a drawing where one lucky winner would join Cates in playing the main event and would do so on Cates' dime.  The only qualifying factor was that the winner had to have never played the WSOP Main Event before.  When the time came for the big drawing, Grump's ticket emerged from the fish bowl, and now he is in the midst of preparing for the big one.  It was fun to sit down with him and hear him talk about the experience: