Joining Team PokerStars Online

PokerStars dropped a huge bomb a few days ago when they announced the signing of mysterious online poker sensation Isildur1. The whole poker world was buzzing with excitement eager to see the superstar play on PokerStars for ridiculous amounts of money. The signing of Isildur1 got some people thinking: "PokerStars has signed legends such as Daniel Negreanu and Barry Greenstein and now with Internet phenom Isildur1 in the stable, how on Earth can they top that?!" Well my friends, PokerStars has indeed "done it again." On Wednesday, December 15, 2010, PokerStars VIP head SteveD quietly announced in a 2+2.com forum thread the signing of .9bb/100 winner Tyler "frosty012" Frost and the poker world did not even know how to react!

In all seriousness, I'm absolutely thrilled to be part of Team Online and I consider it a huge honour to be hired by PokerStars. Furthermore, I could have never expected such a positive reception from my peers on the forums and at the tables-none of whom I know personally. I woke up today around 2pm after playing poker all night until 7am and finally crashing for a nap (was planning on staying up all night to fix sleep schedule...might have worked, as I'm actually tired now!). When I checked the forums today, there were probably 4 pages of people that I only know from the poker tables congratulating me and saying kind words. Throughout my entire session today I had people also saying "congrats" to me at the tables and it really means a lot to me to have that respect from my peers. In poker, it seems like everyone eventually has "their day," whether it be a monstrous day at the cash tables or taking down a big tourney and it's nice to see a supportive online poker community.

Now, a huge reason as to why I was chosen to be on Team Online is because of this blog. While I have good results at the cash tables, I'd like to think that the main reason why I appeal as a good representative for PokerStars is because I've been able to show that you don't have to sacrifice your social life to be a professional poker player. Following that train of thought, I'd like to personally thank those people at PokerStars who are somewhat taking a chance on me (given the content of my blog, lol). More importantly, I need to thank YOU GUYS for reading my blog in the first place and for showing your support publicly through following or posting comments. I will absolutely do something to celebrate and give back to you all (up to you really, I'm open to suggestions but I could stake a couple of people in high stake tournaments or make another strategy video (I'd lean towards the video, only because it will be able to benefit more people)) early next year once I can take a breath from the SNE grind.

For those who are interested in how the signing came about, basically I sent PokerStars an email back in February and told them what I was trying to accomplish this year and told them about my blog. As I blogged about earlier in the year, they got back to me around April and told me that they liked the direction that my blog was going and offered me some suggestions and told me to try and promote it a bit more. I tried to listen to their ideas, my following grew thanks to you guys and I was offered a contract in October. I thought about it for a while and at the end of the day decided that this was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up and boom, it was done. I don't know exactly what to expect from this whole experience but I'm sure that it will be universally positive and am excited for finishing off my quest for SNE and for 2011. 90K VPP's to go, it's going to be a close one!

Thanks for reading everyone,

gl at the tables!!!