about cardschat: 2004 - present

Debi O''Neill

Forum Administrator

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Debi joined CardsChat in 2006 after running into one of the mods in a PokerStars sng. She became a moderator and a couple of years later became the forum administrator. She loves to play poker and often joins the members in CardsChat events. She is always willing to answer questions for members and assist them in any way. Feel free to ask her questions in the forum or by sending her a private message!

Tammy Parker

Assistant Administrator

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Tammy came to CardsChat in May of 2005 looking for a freeroll password. She quickly fell in love with the community and has been here ever since! Being a forum moderator for over 10 years, Tammy has seen CardsChat grow from humble beginnings to where it is today. Tammy is committed to assisting our member base, whether you are a new member or a seasoned "pro". Feel free to contact Tammy any time; she is always happy to assist our members. And who knows You may just see her sitting at the virtual felts at a poker site near you!

Martin Hackett

Lead Moderator

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While growing up Martin always enjoyed playing cards. He found out about hold’em after watching several episodes of late-night poker on tv and thought, 'I can do that.' He opened his first online poker account back in the days of dial-up internet which was kind of fun, then kept noticing CardsChat games were set up in different rooms, so like a lot of members searched for CardsChat to try to find passwords and liked what he saw. That was back in 2010. Martin has now been a moderator for a few years and helps run CardsChat League where the emphasis is on good play, sportsmanship, and friendly chat.

Ryan LaPlante

Ambassador/Pro WSOP Bracelet Winner, Total Live and Online Earnings - $5,190,068

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Ryan has been playing poker professionally for about 10 years. He won a WSOP bracelet in 2016, has 7 WSOP final tables and over $5.1 million in online and live tournament winnings. He estimates he has played over 40,000 tournaments. He joined CardsChat in 2014 and is "Ryan Laplante" in the forums.

Dara O'Kearney

Ambassador Total Live and Online Earnings - $4,712,259

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Former Irish international ultra-runner turned poker pro, Dara O’Kearney aka Doke is known for being a lot of things. A Satellite Beast. A Short Stack Jedi. David Bowie's mate. The Oldest Internet Poker Kid. 2nd. While Dara does have a lot of 2nds on his résumé, he actually has far more wins, evidenced by his 6 Pocket Fives Triple Crowns. In fact, he notched up his first victory in his very first live poker tournament when he won €47,000 at the 2008 European Deepstack. Back in 2007, on his very first night playing online, Dara won $151 in a freeroll and ran it up without ever depositing a cent. Today, he is Ireland's biggest online winner (with over $2.5 million lifetime profit) and most cashed live player (199 cashes, 70 final tables and 8 wins in 17 different countries). Dara won Super Tuesday in 2013 for $84,000 and final tabled a SCOOP event in 2017 for $39,000 but his biggest result came in 2015 when he narrowly missed out on a bracelet, finishing 2nd at the WSOP (after a headsup chop) for $300,000. As well as being a player, Dara is a coach, author of two #1 best selling poker strategy books "Poker Satellite Strategy" and "PKO poker Strategy", and a very popular blogger. He co-hosts the GPI Award winning Chip Race Poker podcast, the Lock-In on Youtube and he writes a free monthly newsletter on poker strategy. He has also commentated on The Irish Poker Open, The Unibet Open and at the WSOP. Dara became a Unibet Ambassador in March 2017.

AMA thread in the forum: Dara O’Kearney (Satellite Specialist) - Ask Me Anything about satellites and MTTs.

Quote:

"I'm honoured and delighted to be representing the friendliest poker forum on the whole internet. Since I showed up there a few years ago to answer questions about my first book, I completely fell in love with the welcoming culture of CardsChat"

Matt Vaughan

Ambassador Total live earnings: Almost $300,000

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Matt has been playing poker seriously for a decade and has been a professional, coach, and poker vlogger for the last 5 years. During that time he has bounced back and forth between game formats, poker venues, and geographical locations. Currently Matt is located in Las Vegas, NV and spends most of his poker playing time on online and live MTTs. He also still publishes vlogs and other content regularly to YouTube, and works as a poker training site coach.

Outside of poker, Matt spends most of his free time with his fiancée and dog, tries (and fails) to stay in shape through running and hiking, and occasionally enjoys a nice scotch after dinner. He can be found on the CardsChat forum using the screen name "Scourrge" and sporting CardsChat swag at many live poker events.

Matt will answer your questions and analyze your hands in this CardsChat forum thread: Matt Vaughan (Poker Vlogger) - Ask Me Anything - Including Hand Analysis

Quote:

"I couldn't be more excited to be representing CardsChat. The forum is one of the first places I gravitated to as a new player, and it was a major contributor to me becoming extremely passionate about poker. Over the years I've tried to give back to the community here and there, and I actually still have a progress thread there that I update occasionally. It's crazy to think that twelve years later I've come full circle to be fully back with CardsChat once again."

Ashley Sleeth

Ambassador Total earnings: Almost $300,000

Ashley has been a professional tournament player since 2017. After dabbling in cash games and online SNGs for a few years, she fell in love with the dynamics of tournament strategy and the feeling of being at an FT. She currently has a WSOP Circuit Ring, two Venetian titles and a Run It Up Reno victory included in her $300k live tournament earnings. With a background in teaching yoga and meditation, Ashley enjoys helping poker players develop strong mental games to withstand the swings of the game. She loves to have fun at the tables and is excited to be a part of the CardsChat community!

Quote:

"I'm so excited to join a poker community that is beginner-friendly and emphasizes FUN at the table!"

Jeff Gross

Ambassador/Pro Total Live and Online Earnings - $4,613,482

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"Jeff Gross is an online and live poker pro originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan. He started playing small stakes games with friends, then moved on to online poker where he grew a substantial bankroll out of a small deposit of $25 on partypoker. Jeff played poker on his limited off time during his days at University of South Carolina where he also played Division I soccer under a part academic, part athletic scholarship for four years. He plays in a variety of high-stakes cash games, but his true love is tournament poker. He now is part of team partypoker online as well as the Co Managing Director of this team. He is an accomplished Twitch streamer as well. Jeff has combined earnings of over $4.5 million live and online. He joined CardsChat in 2015 and can be found on the forums as 'Jeff Gross'.

TJ Kearney

Forum Moderator

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TJ didn't realize that there was skill and strategy to poker, and thought it was just a game of luck and didn't even know how to play. That is, until he watched the movie "Rounders" starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton. It opened his eyes to the complexity of poker, and he knew he just had to learn the game. So, he wrote the hand rankings down on a piece of paper and started to work. TJ had early success in his first real money tournament, but poor bankroll management would see that win quickly dwindle. Luckily, he found CardsChat and learned all about proper bankroll management!

Shelley Knight

Forum Moderator

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Shelley started playing poker a few years back when some members of her online Euchre club suggested they try a poker game or two, starting out with play money games. She eventually started playing real money games, joined CardsChat, and started qualifying for freerolls. The freerolls were helpful in improving her game, but she found the content from CardsChat members far more valuable for upping her game. "You can take it as far as you want and there will always be someone available and willing to guide you." Shelley has become an integral part of the CardsChat community. She is a Moderator and part of the League team.

Draza Jankovic

Forum Moderator

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Draza registered at CardsChat in March of 2013. At that time, he knew very little about poker and did not speak English well. Over the years his poker knowledge improved drastically and so did his English! In 2016 he became a forum moderator. If you are not good in English but still want to be involved in this beautiful forum, Draza is a guy who can give you a tip or two. Draza is DrazaFFT on CardsChat - feel free to contact him any time.

Danilo Gonçalves

Forum Moderator

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Danilo goes by the nickname "advoghado" in most poker rooms. He joined CardsChat in 2012 because he noticed CardsChat tournaments in several poker rooms, so decided to register and start participating and becoming a big part of the CardsChat community. Danilo lives in Brazil and plays a lot of poker online at different poker rooms. He is a moderator on CardsChat and active in League and our other events. Say hi to him if you see him at the tables!

Hugh Blair

Forum Moderator

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Hugh lives in Dublin, Ireland and works as a heavy machine operator on construction sites. He loves going to car boot sales, buying and selling things and the spare room in his house looks like something out of the "Hoarding: Buried Alive" show. He has a partner of 9 years and 2 sons 7 and 2 years old. He enjoys a good flutter on the poker table.

Mike T.

Forum Moderator

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Mike started playing poker in 2006 with his family and friends and quickly became hooked on the game. This was during the poker boom when poker was all over television. It didn't take long before he signed up to his first online poker site - Full Tilt Poker. He was playing for many years, but it wasn't until he joined CardsChat that he became a true poker nut. Initially he was attracted to the great value that CardsChat games offered, but it was the friendliness and camaraderie in the forum that really made CardsChat the place to be. He is proud to be a member here and says his only regret is not discovering CardsChat earlier.

Chris Robinson

Forum Moderator

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Started my poker playing career back in the early 2000's with a group of friends that picked the game up. Turned into a twice monthly game with a bigger group of people including a few MTT's and cash games playing way outside everyone's bankroll! Won my local bar league championship in 2006 which concluded in a 120+ person MTT win, my biggest size tournament win to date. But the biggest cash of my career was $1300 playing in a $100 home game that was extremely top heavy - again, way outside my bankroll!

I took time off from poker after 2008; settled down, got married, had 3 kids, changed jobs. But I picked poker back up in 2015 when PokerStars sent me an e-mail with 5 free tickets to play their Spin n Go's. Found the CardsChat freeroll at that time and decided to join the forum. Met a few good people right off the bat playing in the CardsChat World Cup and was introduced to the League in Winter 2017 and was all-in on the site ever since!

Chris is also on our Social Team creating engaging content and interacting with our fans on Facebook and Twitter.

David Silveira

Forum Moderator

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David's first experience with poker was "donking it up" with co-workers on play money tables while working in a real estate office in 2005. Since he spent very little time watching TV, poker stayed in the background as just another casino gambling game played against the house. In 2013, he came across some articles about the WSOP Main Event and realized after further reading that not only did many players earn a good living playing poker full-time, some actually went on to win life-changing money. After originally coming to CardsChat for the freerolls, he's still working on the part about life-changing money (the good living hasn't happened yet either) but in the meantime is one of CardsChat's newest moderators.

Stephen Dealio

Forum Guide

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Stephen started playing poker in 2004 at small stakes home games with his brother and friends. He started playing online poker, grinding his way up through the micro stakes, and eventually in the WSOP Main Event! But when he busted out of the Main Event, he realized he still had a lot to learn. Stephen went home intent on studying his game. He found CardsChat about 5 years ago and started to get a grasp on how much there was to learn. "I found out that it's not just a card game involved with luck, but so much more! Since then, my game has definitely improved drastically! I've played in multiple WSOP events and have been on the winning side of some pretty good cash games! I don't know where I'd be in poker if it wasn't for CardsChat!"

Vladimir Borysov

Forum Guide

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Vladimir was born in Ukraine, but with strong Russian roots. In 2008 he was looking for a good job to help pay for his studies at university and decided he needed to leave home to find it. So he moved to Poland, where he found his true home. It was there he got interested in poker when a friend showed him how to play. Vladimir had always played cards, but never poker up until then. He would always play Hearts with his grandfather and marvel at his ability to know every single card played in the game. Vladimir came to CardsChat not having any strategy in his poker, but since then has learned: poker is a very complex game! He enjoys interacting and arguing strategy with players from all over the world. He's proud to be a part of the CardsChat community, and we are proud to have him on our team! He is not only a Forum Guide, but a Language Mentor for our members speaking Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish.

Tim Walsh

Forum Guide

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Tim watched his cousins, uncles, and grandfather play poker at family events from the time he was very young. Being the youngest child of the youngest child, he was never old enough to play in the games before they "broke" permanently with the passing of the family patriarch. However, knowing the rules enabled him to play in Middle/High School.

Poker playing was sporadic after that, but online poker and the Poker Boom created new venues and opportunities.

From small home games to Facebook Poker, PokerStars, FullTilt and live rooms, poker playing led to a fascination with poker chips and the pursuit of amassing sets of casino-used chips. Black Friday cooled his enthusiasm for online poker, and the thousands of dollars worth of poker chips were seldom being used. When he found CardsChat, Tim was able to regain an interest in online real money poker. There were new rooms to discover and a new community to play with. He could learn and have fun, making some money without financial risk.

Bee

Forum Guide

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I live in Novi Sad, Serbia and started to playing poker in 2011 with a friends. I joined CardsChat in November 2014 after a woman I met in an online tournament recommended CardsChat to me. So I joined and found that CardsChat is a completely different world.

Yes, CardsChat has helped me learn more about poker strategy, terminology, and so much more about the game, but the forum has its own life, people, and culture. I like how the site is designed so that we can talk about other things and not just about poker. Besides the large number of wonderful people, positive energy that you can receive or send, on CC I always find support.

Bee has been a staple in CardsChat League and is also one of our Language Mentors in addition to being a Forum Guide.

Milen Cenov

Forum Guide

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Milen was born in Bulgaria in 1979. When communism collapsed in 1989 it gave him the opportunity to attend the top school in the country. There in Sofia, Milen learned English and then German. He is something of a linguist; not only fluent in English, German, and Russian, Milen also speaks Italian and Swedish! Perhaps this is why he makes such a good Language Mentor here on CardsChat.

Milen works in finance in the 'financial inclusion' field, helping to make banking options available to those in poorer countries who might otherwise not have access. A fun fact: Milen is a pilot but does not have a license to drive a car.

Milen learned to play 5 Card Draw when he was in 5th grade. Other game variants at the time were a mystery to him, but eventually, Milen also learned stud games and of course Texas Hold'em. He did quite well for himself during the first part of the century, even winning $50,000 in a big tournament. He used $10,000 of that to buy-in to the WSOP. Milen busted on Day 2 and learned that it is not so easy to be a poker pro!

In the Spring of 2016 Milen saw some CardsChat freerolls in the lobbies of PokerStars and Americas Cardroom and decided to check it out. He loves the forum because it's not just about poker, but everything under the sun. He made an account, started posting, and never looked back! Now Milen is a Loyaler, Guide, Language Mentor, and part of the League team. He enjoys helping newcomers to the forum because he remembers what it was like to be new.

Collin Moshman

Ambassador Total Live Earnings $64,971

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Collin studied mathematics at Caltech before discovering poker in 2004. He is the author of five poker books including the international best-seller Sit ‘N Go Strategy, which has sold over 200,000 copies in more than a dozen languages. Collin has staked and coached hundreds of players, and his PokerStars screenname 'tfnc314' appears on 50 Sharkscope leaderboards. He loves turbo and single-table tournaments and has also been successful in live poker with a Venetian Deep Stack win and a deep WSOP main event run. He joined CardsChat in 2009 and posts in the forums as 'Collin Moshman.' Collin has won over $3 million in online cashes.

Katie Dozier

Ambassador Total Live Earnings $77,159

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Born in Miami, Katie began playing homegames while studying creative writing at Florida State. She went on to achieve one of the highest all-time ROIs at nine-man super-turbos, becoming an online pro with over 100,000 lifetime tournaments played.

Katie transitioned to focusing on multi-table tournaments with multiple large-field wins. She has made over 200 poker training videos, including a viral video of her mass-tabling skills playing 40 tables at once.

She has written for numerous publications including Cardplayer, Poker Pro Magazine and the Pokerstars Blog, and she is the co-author of two poker books along with her husband Collin. She joined CardsChat in 2010 and posts in the forums as 'Katie Dozier.' Katie has won over $1 million in online cashes.

Evan Jarvis

Ambassador

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I've been playing poker since 2004. Starting with sit-n-go’s, I moved to cash games where I played millions of hands from $0.50/1.00 to $5/10NL. After my roommate Greg Merson won the Main Event in 2012, I caught the tournament bug and played them exclusively from 2013-2019. During this time, I cashed the Main Event 4 Years in a row, won an LAPT Event for $10,100 and a local $1k freezeout for $15,891.

Over my career I have accumulated over $1 million in winnings between cash games and tournaments thanks to very solid game selection. My biggest win (so far) came in 2016 when I chopped the Niagara Fallsview Poker Classic $1k event with the chip lead 3 handed for $162,000. In addition to playing I have a great passion for teaching the game.

I have been making training videos on my YouTube channel 'gripsed' since 2008. I wrote the 1st chapter of Excelling at No Limit Hold'em, and am currently working on my first full length book on how to win at cash game poker! It's a real honor to be part of the CardsChat community, and I look forward to helping out as many poker players as I can. Let's Get Stackin’!

Jacki Burkhart

Poker Expert Total Live Earnings $166,920

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Jacki is a wife, mom, dental hygienist, skateboarder and all-around nerd. She started playing poker in 2008 and joined CardsChat in 2013 looking for freeroll passwords and strategy advice. She finished 5th in the WSOP Ladies event in 2018 and appeared on Poker Night in America in Aug 2018. She can be found hanging around the tournament hand analysis section as "missjacki" and will be happy to assist you!

Carl Di Veglia

Poker Expert

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"I began playing poker when I was in 10th grade, in the summer of 2004. The poker boom had exploded, and I played my first home game SNG after a game of paintball and pizza with my friends. I won my first game and that $25 win created a monster. I started to play more and more over the years and have had some solid success. A top 100 finish in the Main Event in 2015 was something I will always cherish. I have been able to see some cool places and meet new friends I may never crossed paths with if I didn't start playing poker. I still play a few tournaments a year and am still hopeful I will have my massive breakout score!"

Jeremy Pantin

Poker Expert

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Jeremy has been playing poker for over a decade and has 3 million hands worth of experience playing Pot Limit Omaha, moving up the ranks to play some of the highest stakes games on offer. Jeremy is also an accomplished tournament player having previously won SCOOP events and boasts over $1 million in live and online tournament cashes.

Daniel Hide

Poker Expert

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Daniel has been playing poker for around 8 years in total and has spent close to all of that time playing NLHE; mostly online in that time and most commonly playing cash, although Dan does play some of the mid-stakes tournaments both online and live. He is now playing full time and had his biggest score so far winning $252,000 in the PokerStars Sunday Million Anniversary early in 2018, coming in 5^th overall. This allowed Daniel to go to his first WSOP and he now plans to be covering the whole series moving forward. He still sticks to online cash mostly and has had some near misses live, so hoping a big score is just around the corner. Daniel has made some genuine lifelong friends from being a member at CardsChat and had some genuinely enjoyable times on the forums.

John Anhalt

Poker Expert

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John Anhalt is a successful U.S. born poker player and entrepreneur. He started playing limit and no-limit texas holdem in 2004, and quickly built a six figure bankroll off one $50 deposit. Since then he's coached over 100+ students, including famous athletes and celebrities. He's been a guest on several radio shows and podcasts about poker and the state of poker. He's written four online e-books on poker, and has done over 150 strategy videos on no-limit S&G's, Multi-table tournaments and cash games.

John is a husband and father of two children. He's the owner and founder of Ace Poker

Solutions which creates poker tools such as DriveHUD, Poker Leak Buster, Ignition Card Catcher, and training tools such as Ace Poker Drills. "I was swept up in the "Moneymaker Effect' after amateur Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP Main Event in 2003. I was working in corporate America at the time (making a comfortable six-figure salary), but not satisfied with the career path in front of me. I'm not entirely sure how poker found me, but I began playing limit poker, and like anything I do in life, I studied everything I could get my hands on about the game and ate it up. I made one $50 deposit on Pacific Poker back in 2004, and I've never busted or looked back since. Since then I've won several hundred thousand dollars in cash games and some nice tournament scores as well. I haven't played a ton of tournament poker over my career simply because of time commitments, but I do have WSOP cashes, and have won other local and online tournaments. Most of my study and time has gone into no-limit Texas Holdem 6-max, full ring, and heads-up cash games. I've played and had some decent success at pot-limit Omaha and Razz as well, but don't enjoy those games nearly as much." John can be found frequenting the forums on CardsChat so feel free to hit him up for advice and poker strategy!

Nathan BlackRain79 Williams

Poker Expert

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I began playing poker in late 2004. It was a friendly $5 game with friends when I was first introduced to the game. I got lucky that night and I won the whole thing. I proceeded to find online poker the very next day, choosing the screen name "BlackRain79." Over the course of the next two years I began slowly building up my bankroll at the micro stakes. And by early 2007 I finally made the decision to quit my job and turn pro because I was making significantly more money playing poker than from my day job. I went on to create some of the highest winnings ever posted in low stakes online poker games. I also wrote 3 best-selling poker strategy books. I spend most of the year now traveling the world, playing poker and writing about poker on my blog: www.blackrain79.com

Jon Sofen

News Writer (Las Vegas)

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Latest Articles:

• Tony G Sent on His Bike: Poker Player Loses European Parliament Re-Election Bid
• Appetizer for the Main Course: 2019 WSOP Doors Open as Cash Games Underway
• CardsChat Ambassador Ryan Laplante Among Chip Leaders at WPT Aria Summer Championship

Dan Smyth

News Writer (London)

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Latest Articles:

• Unibet Open London Breaks Records as Daniel James Triumphs
• Tiger Woods Falls Short but Tiger Jam Another Roaring Success
• Rui Cao Notches Up Career-First by Winning Triton Poker Short Deck Event

Robbie Strazynski

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Robbie Strazynski is the host of the CardsChat podcast. He is the founder of Cardplayerlifestyle.com and the translator of Pulling the Trigger: The Autobiography of Eli Elezra. A Global Poker Award winner (2018 Charitable Initiative of the Year), Robbie has been active in the poker media scene since 2009, producing popular written, audio, and video content.

Donna Scruggs

Social Media Team

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Came for the freerolls, stayed for the fun.

Jeff Weissman

Social Media Team

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Jeff joined CardsChat in 2009 and was drafted to his 1st league by Lark Marlow in 2012. After that he was hooked. He has now played in 27 seasons, winning League MVP in 2013 and is now Captain of his own team: Reckless Razors. Jeff is also a very good freeroll player sweeping our 2016 leaderboard competition, and usually at the top spots quarter after quarter. Jeff joined our Social Media Team in 2016. You can always catch him on our Facebook page replying to our fans' comments.

Karen Craft

Social Media Team

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Karen is from the 'old school' crowd of the CardsChat forum. She's been here as long as Debi and Tammy. Her quick wit and sense of humor made her the perfect fit for our social team. Karen is innovative and loves to push the envelope as much as she can. She keeps us on our toes, and we love her for it. You'll find her commenting on fan posts as 'bbb' otherwise known as 'bubbasbestbabe' on the forum.

TJ Kearney

Social Media Team

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TJ has been a member of the social media team since 2015. Having worked with him as a moderator, we already knew he would be a great fit for social.

Shelley Knight

Social Media Team

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Shelley is a mainstay at CardsChat and it's hard to imagine what we did without her. She fits in seamlessly with our social team and provides us with thoughtful content for our fans. You'll see Shells not just in Twitter and Facebook replying to fans' comments, but on the forums as well. Shelley is one of our most beloved Moderators too. Always willing to lend a hand, Shells is a shining example of positivity wherever she goes.

Chris Robinson

Social Media Team

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A long time CardsChat forum member and League participant, it just made sense to bring Chris on board our social team. Chris is the architect of a ton of great content: outs/odds quizzes, strategy scenarios and current events. He frequently interacts with our fans on Facebook and Twitter. You'll also find him on the forum as CRStals. Oh, and he just happens to be a Forum Moderator as well!