Marketing Results, Inc., a casino marketing industry leader with offices in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, assisted Wyandotte Nation Casino in their successful casino opening.

When I visit the casino there are certain essential items that I like to bring along with me. I call it my casino survival kit and most of these will…

The black limos sat in a line, pitch-colored automotive sharks packed full of some of the world’s biggest celebrities. Paparazzi jammed the velvet ropes, looking for that one shot that would earn them their daily nut. The carpet was a color of red that seems reserved for such gala events.

The invite list this night in Cannes was exclusive as it gets. Names like George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Don Cheadle sat at the top of the list. Every eye in the crowd was wide open and straining to get a look at the cast of the “Ocean’s Thirteen.”

A hand took the handle of a limo’s door and opened it. Lightbulbs flashed. Everybody in the crowd craned their necks. Who emerged from the doors?

What few people in the crowd knew at that moment was that four tough poker players had battled their way to the top four places in a poker tournament to aid suffering in the Darfur region of Sudan. The charity Not On Our Watch was hosting gala event and PokerStars had sent four of its players and more than $1 million to help the project. Now, these four players, JaspudUF, SM4RTASS, herbert, and berchem13, were walking the red carpet with the the world’s biggest celebs.

Jason Lee & Matthew Seymour

Daniel and Ericka Smith with Anton Kolomiets

PokerStars player, Christian “berchem13″ Gauche, had only been playing poker for a year when his fortune took a good turn. At 26 years old, he won a $109 event on PokerStars, qualified for the World Series, and won the trip to Cannes all in his first year.

Christian Gauche and girlfriend Magdalena Kurzeja

“To win a special trip like this one is something very special,” he said from his home in Luxembourg.

“It was a great feeling to represent Pokerstars in Cannes for their charity. Such a donation shows also the world that poker is not only about doing money, money, money.”

Like the other three winners, berchem13 made it to Cannes in time for the red carpet walk, was whisked by limousine to the party, and sat in on the worldwide premiere of the movie.

“The trip to Cannes was amazing,” he said.

Each winner handled his trip differently. While berchem13 took his girlfriend, Holland’s Anton Kolomiets (aka SM4RTASS) decided to take a buddy.

“The girls in Cannes are absolutely gorgeous, so it would have been a waste to bring just a single girl along,” he joked.

Anton and his friend hit Cannes with full force.

“At first we just scouted the area a bit,” he said. “The environment and landscape are gorgeous. Later on we got to meet the rest of the tournament winners, which were all very cool guys.”

After that, he hit the city and premiere with full force. Afterward, Anton put his poker skills to good use.

“We went to an after party at a very exclusive place later on where we weren’t really invited, but as poker players we bluffed our way in. We got to meet some of the cast, together with Quentin Tarantino and Kylie Minogue, among other celebs.

Anton Kolomiets and Doplh Lundgren

“I think it’s great that PokerStars offers us the option to win exclusive trips like this, not available for the major public,” Anton said. “Anyone can win money with sports betting, gambling, lottery etc, but you can’t win this kind of stuff in most places.”

Congratulations to all the players who made it to Cannes.

Coming up on June 5, four other PokerStars players will be hitting the gala premiere in Hollywood. Congratulations to H@££INGGOL, LAFMAN123, xBryceyx, and wushuplaya. Have fun in Hollywood!

When RikkiTikki won the Sunday Million this week, it was really, really late. I ended up writing something that referred to the winner as a he. Boy, that was a mistake. I rarely, if ever, slip into sexist writing, especially when it comes to poker players (I learned my lesson about female poker players years ago when playing with Team PokerStars’ Isabelle Mercier). In all honesty, I saw the first name “Lone,” I took a guess and wad wrong. As it turns out, RikkiTikki is a hard-charging female poker player who politely informed me “girls can play poker as well.” With that in mind, here’s a bit more about RikkiTikki.

RikkiTikki

Real name: Lone
Age: 31
Hometown: Aarhus, Denmark
Profession: Marketing entrepreneur and poker player

Poker background: My boyfriend, who’s a talented poker player, taught me to play poker three years ago. And since then it has been a great interest of mine and I’ve trying to improve myself ever since and right now I’m playing poker for a living.

Life outside poker: When I don’t play poker I’m doing sports, taking care of my animals, travelling, oil painting, reading books, watching movies or documentaries, diving, hanging out with my family and friends and I work as a volunteer for a NGO, and that work means a lot to me. I’m a University graduate in marketing and communications and have been working with marketing and campaigns before and are now in the process of starting up my own little company.

Plans for winnings: This is my biggest win. Some of the winnings go to the bankroll, other to investments and others again to travels, etc. with my family.

The post-win celebration: My boyfriend was the only one here. He was sleeping and I woke him up when I reached the final table, so he was cheering of course and giving good advices and it was nice to discuss hands with another person at that time (I was getting tired since it was night time here most of the time the tournament took place). I called my brother and my parents – and told them that I won and how much.

Las Vegas, Nevada is popular for many things that are hosted in its cities casinos, ranging from music concerts to blockbuster boxing matches, but today, it will host the biggest Michael Jackson auction ever.