It's Game Time! PokerStars North America Red Spade Pass Winners Hit Up NHL Game
Table Of Contents
Last month, PokerStars North America ran a Red Spade Pass promotion in which they awarded four prizes – a pair of passes to poker winners and two to casino winners. Tonight, the two poker winners will take advantage of their Red Spade Passes as they head to the Toronto Maple Leafs vs Detroit Red Wings tonight at 7 p.m. ET.
Each pass consists of:
- Road trip from Detroit to Toronto
- Two nights in five-star accommodations
- Suite tickets to the NHL game between the Toronto Maple Leafs v Detroit Red Wings on April 17
- Hockey Hall of Fame tickets
- The opportunity to bring a guest
- Transportation, food and drink included
“We love creating unique experiences for our players and the Red Spade Pass is the ultimate fan experience bringing together the thrill of poker, casino, and sports," Staci Wixted, Head of Partnerships and Business Development for PokerStars North America, said of the promotion. "We’re pleased to be able to offer another unique Red Spade Pass experience with the Detroit Red Wings and give fans an experience they won’t find anywhere else.”
Hockey Fan Rooting for the Wings
One of the winners was 24-year-old Riley O’Bryan from Southeast Michigan. He grew up about 45 minutes north from Detroit, hs a degree in Biomolecular Sciences from the University of Michigan, and currently works in medical sales.
“I learned how to play poker when I was younger. I played casual games with my buddies growing up and continued into college,” he told PokerNews. “I play the occasional online tournament, usually low-stakes cash games with my friends at home.”
As for the Red Spade Pass, he won it playing a knock-out tournament.
“I was playing well until the final table and got lucky with the final hand. I got dealt a 6x9x and went all in thinking, ‘Ah, what the heck, it's in the poker god’s hands.’ The other guy called with an AxQx or something like that, and I hit a lucky pair.”
As for tonight’s NHL game, O’Bryan offered, “I grew up a hockey fan, and I try to go to a few games a year with my buddies. I am rooting for the Wings! I am bringing my fiancée Victoria.”
Q&A with Andrew Borman
One of the poker winners, who won a pass via a Poker Faceoff Freeroll, was Andrew Borman, who grew up in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, with two older brothers and what he described as “a loving family overall.”
He explained: “As a family, we were very big into golf and that was my first love and my goal was to play tour golf throughout middle school and into high school, but never got good enough, unfortunately.”
Borman attended Ohio State and earned an undergraduate degree in Climatic Studies, and then got a Master of Engineering degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Despite that, he is now a full-time poker player.
“My investment in education was not a complete waste because I met my wife while attending Ohio State and we now have a two year old son named Liam,” said Borman, whose other hobbies include watching/attending sporting events and concerts, playing video games, and playing anything his son wants to play at a particular moment.
PokerNews had the opportunity to catch up with Borman prior to his Red Spade Pass experience.
PokerNews: When and how did you learn to play poker?
Borman: My brother, who is six years older than I, was watching the 2003 WSOP Main Event coverage when I was nine years old and he ended up getting really into poker and playing with his friends in high school. Naturally, as any good big brother would do, he taught me how to play and I ended up falling in love with the game.”
What sort of poker do you play nowadays?
I play everything. My main area of expertise is online no-limit hold’em MTTs but will play live at casinos as well as home games and will also play some mixed game tournaments. I used to play some online cash games, but have phased those out and very rarely play cash anymore these days. As mentioned earlier, I play poker full time as my job, but I do it just because I love the game, and thankfully I just happen to make enough to support our family doing it. And as far as stakes, I will play anything from a $5 satellite to a $5,000 live tournament, so I'm kind of all over the board there.
What is your PokerStars screen name? Any fun story behind it?
My screen name on PokerStars is “blueskyQ8” and, yes, there is a funny story behind it. In college I was playing some very small stakes online cash games and one of my roommates was watching me play one day and I was maybe playing for 30 minutes and one person whose screen name was "bluesky" at my table went all in pre three times with the Q♥8♥ and so we gave that hand the name "bluesky" but pronounced "blueski."
Probably the reason it has remained a thing for us is because the name was almost certainly supposed to be pronounced as "blue sky" but we just called him or her "blueski" with no hesitation or thought that it could be anything different at the time. Very dumb but we were college guys so what else do you expect?
Are you a hockey fan? Who will you be rooting for – Maple Leafs or Red Wings?
I am a hockey fan. However, given the fact that I am from Ohio and went to school at Ohio State, I am a Blue Jackets fan, and we are in the playoff hunt battling it out for the last wild card with the Red Wings. So, as of now, it looks like I will be rooting for Toronto, but a lot can change over the course of two weeks, and if anything changes for either team, I will pull for the Red Wings.
Who will you bring as your guest?
I am bringing a friend who you might know as “DrDad1819,” Dan Schill. I met him through his Twitch stream and have now hung out with him multiple times in person, and always have a good time together, so we're looking forward to the trip!
What are your future poker plans? Will we be seeing you at any stops?
For now, my plans are to keep grinding the online streets, but I hope to make some live stops. Maybe MSPT at Firekeepers, maybe WSOP, maybe NAPT, and maybe even Philly this month.
