Well it's now 4:21am and I've officially given up hope of going to bed before my flight leaves from the airport in Vegas at 9:10am, so I might as well get a blog post in before I get to Jersey. I'll sleep when I'm dead I suppose. Oh, and on the flight.

Anyway, I'm really excited about what I mentioned in the title. Lock Poker, a member of the Cake Network, recently signed a group of pros including myself, Jason Young, Lee Childs, Mike 'GoLeafsGoEh' Leah, Joe 'JoeytheB' Brooks, Kyle 'kwob20' Bowker and Jonathan Jaffe.

Eric 'Rizen' Lynch, who was the first Lock Pro before the rest of us were signed, was also announced as VP of Product Development in the same press release.

I'd also like to give a big thanks to my agent, Randy Kasper, founder of Poker Players International, for helping forge this deal.

After 21 years of reaping the benefits of being a white American male, it finally worked against me when it came time to get signed by an online site.

This was especially difficult since the UIGEA took effect as my career really began to take off, and as a result of the legislation the major sites stopped marketing in the USA due to the difficulties of getting funds online in America.

Some may say that it was highhhhh time that it worked against me, and I say fair enough.

But now that's all over anyway, and I'm really looking forward to working with a slightly smaller and newer site. It gives me the opportunity to work with the site as they grow and use my experience in the industry to help them along the way.

Not to mention picking up a few dimes along the way. In the few weeks that I've been a Lock Pro I've already made several final tables with two wins, a $109 and a $55, both freezeouts. With the help of these wins I'm already up nearly $10k...not a bad start to my Lock career.

Well, I might as well finish packing since my flight leaves in a few hours. It's going to be a chaotic month of deciding whether the online or Borgata tournaments will be juicier for the day...what a tough life!

It's the scheduling equivalent of having too many chips in a live tournament and not knowing where to put them....ahhh these are the problems we long to have!

I'll leave you with a few words from the owner of Lock Poker...

"We are thrilled to welcome this incredible group of players as part of the Lock Poker family," said Lock Poker CEO Jennifer Larson. "We will be integrating them into all aspects of the business. These pros are the insight we need to really create the best online poker experience worldwide."

-- Matt Stout