After a brief trip to NYC to spend Mother’s day with my mom, it was off to Zurich and then Nice for the Cannes film festival in France. Joined by two of my oldest and closest friends, my first time there was sure to be an adventure. The main reason for going was to co-host and emcee the charity event at the Hotel du Cap, which was a poker and live auction tournament for the Sunflower Children. Helena Hudova founded this wonderful and important organization that supports children with little to no resources globally. I was honored to take part for the second time, as we have another event planned for the fall. Bluff magazine will soon be advertising the event as one of it’s generous sponsors. We were lucky to have some of the most famous and respected celebrities, artists, icons and captains of industry in attendance. Maybach was the presenting sponsor and the cars donated were incredible. Worldwide press seemed most excited when Paris Hilton arrived, as did Emile Hirsch, Malin Ackerman, Willem Dafoe, Lawrence Bender, Adrian Paul and a host of names and faces we all love. Behind the scenes a team of people worked tirelessly day and night for weeks (some months) to make this happen…Lane, Omar, James, Tommy, Uli, Jutta and the whole team were exhausted by the final table which was exciting and crowned our gracious winner Monique McDuffie
which will get coaching from me for the main event and a very generous prize package from Everest Poker! She will be flown out to Vegas, put up and bought into the main event. I will continue to help her through the breaks and give her a shot at the next championship. She has just begun playing, may be her first time in a big tournament, so anytime she lasts will be impressive.

I want to say a special thank you to my friend Phillip Baker for emceeing with me as well as acting as auctioneer. He came in at the last moment from Ireland to help out and was a champion. What a hard working professional, total class act. My new European agents, Poker Icons came through with the Everest deal, flew out to support the event, and were invaluable in their commitment to me. I am very fortunate to have them working with my amazing manager Sean and brilliant attorney Les. As we are in the process of launching our first event for my charitable foundation, I have to thank Angelica and her team for her tireless work for the cause. Finally, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Lisa, you are just the best.

I am looking forward to the Invitational event which will be my first event at the WSOP. This year I am planning on playing a few events, most excited about the main event!

Have a big movie premiere in Los Angeles to support a good friend (and a hell of a poker player Todd Phillips) so my first trip to Vegas for the summer will be cut short.

I wish everyone the good fortune I have had in life and at the WSOP this year. Keep putting out positive energy in the world and give back when you can, time or money, it feels good and makes the world a better place.