So it all started last week when MacDaddy34, a strong mid stakes regular on FTP who I talk to every now and then on AIM, sends me an instant message explaining that his girlfriend is Dion Lim, of KMBC Channel 9 fame, and she wants to do a story about online poker and the World Series of Poker. He suggested that she interview me for the local news and I could talk about poker, DeucesCracked.com, and give a personal story about how I became a professional poker player.

I was obviously thrilled to do this and couldn't wait to set up the interview. We scheduled it for Tuesday morning and Dion and her camera man drove over to our house to film the interview. It turns out they took about 40 minutes of video including some general talking about what it takes to be a professional poker player and they filmed me 4 tabling 5/10nl heads up. The focus of the story ended up shifting towards my battle with cancer and how poker has allowed me to donate some profits to the hospital that cured me: St Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Here's the video on youtube of the news story:



Here's the news article on KMBC.com where it also has the video and a short write up about it.

Also if you liked the story, it would be cool if you gave KMBC some feedback using this link (choose "News Director") saying you liked the story. I think there was some concern from the news station about airing things about online poker, so any positive feedback you could give them would really help the reporter, Dion Lim, and potentially land me another interview. :-)

I think it turned out really well. I gave quite a few shout outs that didn't make it past the editing room (can't blame them I guess, considering they had to take 40 minutes of video and slim it down to a 1.5 minutes), but overall I'm very pleased with how it all turned out. It was a pretty awesome experience.

The thing that just blows my mind a little bit is that here I am a year and a half into being a professional poker player and somehow I land on the news. Granted, I wasn't chosen because of any remarkable feats I've done or tournaments I've won, it's simply that I knew a guy whose girlfriend is one of the main anchors on the local news channel...but to think that 2 years ago I was sitting in a cubicle being a code monkey 8-10 hours a day and now I get my ugly mug on the news for gambling every day of my life... it's just really, really bizarre to me...but in a good way.

I'm super thankful for the opportunity given to me by Evan, Dion, and KMBC TV. It was a fun experience and hopefully I can luckbox my way into a bracelet this year at the WSOP so that I can get some more face time :-)

Too funny.

Aaron