Would you like to hear great two reasons to play a little low-limit on-line poker? Brandon Akey of Wooster, Ohio had never flown in an airplane in his life. “I’ve taken one vacation in my life, when I was in eighth grade, and that was to Florida” he remarked with a smile and a shrug. But now Brandon and a friend have left snowy, rainy Ohio long behind and are kicking it on an all expense paid trip to Palm Springs for the Pro Sports Team Challenge celebrity golf showdown at Eagle Falls Golf Course at Fantasy Springs Resort. “I just played golf with George Gervin, The Iceman himself!” he gushed. “How sweet is that?”
Matt Lesage is a twenty-five year-old carpenter from Burlington, Vermont. His kind and thoughtful girlfriend Ashley is five months preggers with the couple’s first child. “She’s ‘the player to be named later'” Ashley cleverly quipped. But Matt plays on-line poker to bolster the family income. After a grueling three-and-a-half hour session, he found himself headed to Palm Springs as well to play golf with his hockey idols, Pierre Larouche and Mario Lemieux, former Pittsburgh Penguins.
“This was a dream come true. Ashley is originally from Palm Springs, but she hadn’t been back since she was nine” Matt explained. “Now she gets a chance to come back and see her family and I was playing golf with and my hockey idols, like Larouche, Brett Hull, and, of course, Mario Lemieux.”
The pair were playing poker on the website UltimateBet.com when the announcement for the Team Challenge poker tournament went live. “VIP players, guys who play a lot, get points on-line and after accumulating a certain amount, they could enter the tournament for a ten dollar fee” explained Lesage. “The field of sixty players competed for two packages to the tournament. It was an opportunity for me to play golf with pro athletes that I’ve always admired – as an old hockey player myself” he continued. “The next thing I knew, Ashley was by the pool and I was playing golf with my favorite stars.”
Lesage smiles broadly as he recalls the blow-by blow of the blood matches of the tournament. “The first table had an Ultimatebet.com pro – “poker ho,” a seasoned player, and also a loudmouthed chump who was talking a lot of smack about how he was going to win. “This loud guy was bragging about how he was going to play golf with Charles Barkley [the Pro Sports Team Challenge Event Commissioner], but I looked up his stats and he only won $782 bucks on-line. I’ve won a lot more than that, so I wrote to him to get on his head” he remarked. “I told him, “I’ve won more in one pot today than you have in your life.’ I said. I took perverse delight in cleaning him out.”
Lesage hit a set of sixes, to the lugnut’s ace-ten. “He had a big stack, but I doubled me up” Lesage said defiantly. “He didn’t say much after that.” Then Lesage knocked him out completely at the final table. “I Had Q-J and he had A-10 making him a small favorite, but I hit a Jack on the flop. You don’t talk after hands like that.”
But Lesage’s fireworks were only beginning. After he decimated the motor mouth, he went after the “poker ho.” “I popped the wheel (A-5). He had an overpair and raised me on the flop, not knowing I hit my straight. I re-raised and he called me down to the river, and that was it.”
Then Lesage turned his attention to Brandan Akey and a third player. The trio fought it out for the two spots. “It was three handed for at least an hour and half” said Akey. “But the two of us ganged up on him.” Brandon took most of his chips, Matt knocked him out. “He was desperate and ran into my pocket aces in the big blind -those were two pretty aces, let me tell you. I couldn’t resist digging the loud guy, so I found him on another table and said ‘Guess what? I won and I’m golfing with Barkley – how do you like dem apples?'”
Dem apples had a big ol’ worm in ’em.
Lesage and Akey quickly became friends. Lesage won first place in the tournament after he put Akey all in on a Queen-high, but it was anti-climactic as they both were winners. “Matt’s a great guy and a hell of a poker player” said Akey. He’s got such a nice family; he and Ashley are so friendly. We’ve had a great time hanging out at this great resort. And playing golf with a superstar like George Gervin was incredible.”
“Yeah, the pro-am was a blast” echoed Lesage. “I have so many stories to tell: making crazy putts while playing with Pierre, hanging out with my playing partners which included an entertainment lawyer from New York who walked the course in 100-degree heat, and two really nice businessmen from Palm Springs. We missed out on crystal trophies by a shot, but who cares? The athletes treated us so nicely and that gave me confidence in my game.”
“Yeah, I’m just some nobody who won a trip on a poker site, but they’ve been class acts all the way” agreed Akey. “I couldn’t have asked for a better time.”
For Lesage and Ashley, the dream continues in the biggest way – he’ll be playing in the World Series of Poker main event starting next week. “I’m really excited and a lot of my energy comes from my experience this week. Thank you Pro Sports Team Challenge. I’m psyched to do my best to bring home some hardware.”
“Yeah, thank you Team Challenge” Akey said, nodding his assent. “Not only did you make the dreams of a lot of people come through because of the charitable contributions the tournament is making, but you made my dreams come true too.”
