Interview: Justin Collins

Age: 30 Occupation: Actor, Model, Part-Time Poker Player Currently Resides: Dallas, Texas and Los Angeles, California We got a chance to speak with an interesting figure in the poker world this week, Justin Collins. Justin has been modeling and acting since a teenager and recently came into the poker world a few years ago. He spoke with us about life on the front lines of approaching pretty girls and traveling the world with professional poker players. online poker 468x60 PokerTips: Thanks for taking the time to speak with us, Justin. What's up? Collins: Yo yo yo, What up man? I just had a crazy night last night with my buddies. When I realized I wasn't gonna hook up with any girls, I ended up getting really ghetto on people. I was walking up to girls and telling them I was gay. Then giving them hardcore compliments. It worked like a charm too. HAHA, told this girl who had an amazing butt, I mean amazing, "hey girl, I'm gay.....(pause) But i had to tell you, you have an amazing butt. I had to give you credit cause that is a great butt. Every guy is looking at it right now but I just had to let you know I appreciate it." She smiled at me. Asked me my name and wanted to talk to me. I couldn't believe it worked. I got her number and told her later that I wasn't gay. LOL I love it. PokerTips: Nice, nice... an interesting approach to picking up girls, that's for sure! Tell us what led you to becoming acquainted with the poker world. Collins: So here is how I fell into the poker world. I was a broke actor in Hollywood and as a part-time job on the side, I was a coach for a well known pick up site. Every weekend I had guys flying in from all around the world learning how to pick up girls. I would take them out in Hollywood and show them the ropes. It was a lot of fun. Through this, I wrote met a young and up and coming poker player. He was about to go to college and wanted some 1 on 1's with me. I worked with him for one weekend and we got along great. He would always message me online to keep in touch. So later on that year he was doing very well in poker and was in Australia surrounded by beautiful women. He would message me everyday asking me to come to Australia. I had never left the states so I was completely ignorant to traveling. I also had a big movie coming out that I was in and I wanted to be in town for pilot season in Hollywood. Anyways after three weeks of begging me, he made me an offer I couldn't refuse. He told me he'd teach me to make 50k in poker in six months and I would have to show him how to loosen up, meet chicks and just get a cool lifestyle of being a successful poker player. I pitched this idea to a Hollywood producer who had pitched a "pick up " reality show about me before that didn't sell. He loved the idea and told me if I go, he would have a film crew out there to shoot us for a week. I thought about it for a bit and decided "screw it, what do i have to lose? I do the same stuff every day, why not spice my life up and see where it takes me?" It was one of the best decisions I ever made my life. I definitely think life is all about making the right choices. Everyone has choices in life and most people miss out on them or choose poorly. This was a huge risk but I figure life was all about risk. Anyways, I fell straight into the poker world. I knew absolutely nothing about poker before this trip by the way. PokerTips: Cool, what movie were you in? Collins: I had a small part in The Holiday featuring Jack Black and Kate Winslet. PokerTips: What more can you tell us about that trip to Australia where you learned poker? Collins: I flew in town and instantly rolled to Crown Hotel Casino where my friend was staying. We had a nice baller ass room and one of the first thing he shows me is a $5k chip. He literally had $20-$30k laying around the room. I had never seen money like that before in my life. My very first night in Australia I hooked up with a girl. Australian women really make American women less appealing to me. They have awesome values and are down to have a good time. After a month in Australia we traveled around the poker circuit. I met a lot of famous poker players through this trip and I'm still great friends with many of them. We rolled to Poland, Ireland, Monaco, Italy, and Czech Republic. PokerTips: Who are some of the players you met and were hanging out with? Collins: One of the first craziest poker guys I met were Andrew Robl (good2cu) and Blake Stevenson (EmpireMaker). They rolled out with me to alot of clubs and had an amazing time. One night we ended up pulling some random English girls back to our room and Blake ordered a bunch of bottles of Don Perignon. He always was buying bottles of champagne for girls. It was hilarious. PokerTips: What's one of the better stories you could share from hanging around young, successful high stakes players? Collins: One of my favorite stories is about Alec Torelli (traheho), who's my roommate now in Orange County. We were in Poland and he was playing Brad Booth on Full Tilt Poker at $200/$400 which was the biggest game at the time. Andrew, Blake, Sorel Mizzi and I rolled out to a club that night. We ended up at a brothel and I was dancing on the pole giving girls lap dances. It was hilarious. Anyway, we came back around 4-5am and found Alec down like $100k. I passed out and woke up and Alec was still playing only now he was down over $200k. We had a flight to catch to roll to Czech and I seriously had to pull him off the computer. He was in complete degen mode. He was on MASSIVE TILT. He tells Brad he's getting on a flight to Czech and they need to continue the game when he lands. We run to the airport and fly over and check into the Four Season. Alec instantly calls up Bellagio and gets a hold of Brad and they start playing again. They played all evening while Andrew, Blake and I were checking out the night life in Czech. To make a long story short, we come home around 4am and Alec was up $150k overall on Brad. It was the funniest thing ever. Everyone was amazed and me having only been in the poker world for two months, I was blown away. Let's also say Alec was Untilted when we got back. PokerTips: What can you tell us about your own poker playing experience? Collins: I ended up becoming a decent winner at NL50 and also played regularly in Crown Casino's NL300 game. I also took 3rd in a small tournament at a private casino in Ireland. PokerTips: Where else have you traveled thanks to poker? The whole random trip I mentioned earlier led me also to New Zealand and Bali, Indonesia. In Bali, the internet was really bad and I was getting low on cash. I ended up busting my account and had like no money to my name. Thank god I got a random $1k residual check from the movie I was in. I stayed in Bali for 2 months and flew back to America with like $50 bucks to my name. This whole traveling trip made me realize, I love this lifestyle of having friends all over the world, hot foreign women and just seeing new things. I dedicated my life for one year to making money online. I ended up taking poker back up and grinded up $15k and invested a lot of that in affiliate marketing. I now make over $10k a month, live with Alec Torelli (Traheho) in a penthouse in Orange County and am really enjoying life. PokerTips: What does the future hold for you? Collins I plan on staying in Orange County until this winter and then rolling over to Cape Town, South Africa. I pretty much want to make more friends and live everywhere. I have a huge addiction to foreign girls too, so I don't plan on slowing down my lifestyle. I'd love to connect with more guys who have a lifestyle like mine and are down for a good time. I want to put together an entourage that travels around world together playing poker. We'd have some epic stories to share with our friends once we finally slowed down! PokerTips: For our readers interested in following you as a fan, how can they do that? Collins: If y'all want to see what crazy crap I'm getting into or hear more about the crazy stuff Alec does, follow me on Twitter. If you follow me, private message me and I'll send you the link to the reality show that Alec and I had pitched about us. My Twitter handle is JustinCollins26. PokerTips: Thanks for freeing up a few minutes to share some stories with us, Justin. Best wishes with your upcoming adventures! Collins: Thanks man! Anytime anyone wants to join me for some traveling, gambling and talking to girls, holler at me!