In the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona sits a man who holds a unique distinction. George Lind III, also known as jorj95, can claim something no one else can: he is officially the first PokerStars VIP Club Supernova Elite of 2008.
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Supernova Elite is the highest rung of the ladder in the VIP Club. Players have to earn one million VIP Player Points to earn the distinction. Last year, only 39 players managed the achievement (Team PokerStars Pro, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier was the first of that year).
In April of last year, a friend told Jorj95 about the Supernova Elite program. " I thought it would be a fairly easy thing for me to accomplish while making some money along the way," he said. "Then I earned over 500,000 VPP in just the month of May and pretty much coasted the rest of the year to make it to Elite."
He makes it sound pretty easy, no? Well, that was last year. Consider this. He has been married for less than a year and he's already made it to the Elite level...twice.
Taking a look back at jorj95's poker history, it's hard to imagine him failing at anything. In 1998, he started playing low limit games recreationally in casinos. In early 2000, he took a shot at 20/40 hold'em.
"Within about six months I was playing as high as 400/800 mix games," he said.
He played big bet seven card stud games and made enough money that, by April 2001, he had quit his computer programming job and started playing cards fulltime. It seemed he had found his calling. Or maybe not.
"In early 2004, I pretty much quit playing poker because I got bored with it and I got into sports betting," he said. "I did this for a few years, but a lot of the opportunities with sports betting have dried up."
What's fairly amazing is that jorj95 didn't start playing cards again until he learned about the Supernova Elite program this time last year. So, he got married, made Supernova Elite, and set his sites on 2008.
As 2008 began, jorg95 didn't log on to play. He relaxed for a few days, went to the Bahamas for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, and didn't worry about the Supernova Elite program for nearly two weeks. He didn't play a single hand online until January 13.
Two months and five days later, on March 18, jorj95 became the first Supernova Elite of 2008.
As for what he's going to do now, that's still up in the air. Whatever he decides, there is certainly more poker to be played this year. By virtue of making Supernova Elite, he gets free entry into the World Championship of Online Poker main event, as well as two big buy-in live events...all for less than three months work.
Congratulations to jorj95 for the achievement.
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