Rewind back to January 2010. Jonathan was in the Bahamas for the annual PCA tournament series. Amie was in the Bahamas celebrating New Year’s with some friends.
From Amie’s perspective:
On her last night in the Bahamas, Amie and her friends headed to the Atlantis resort for some spa treatments and dinner. At dinner, the girls learned that a poker tournament was going on at the resort. Amie was excited to see what a real tournament looked like. The other girls headed back to their hotel to pack and get ready for their morning flight, but Amie went to the tournament area.
She quickly learned that live poker is boring to watch. No one talks to each other. You can’t see people’s cards. You can’t tell how much anyone is betting. She moved from table to table, thinking she should have just left with her friends. Eventually she found a table where people were joking around and laughing. “A-ha! This is poker!”, she thought. She watched for a few minutes, standing behind one of the players, who would turn around every minute or so and give her a “look”.
Amie thought she was making the players uncomfortable, and figured she should go. At that moment, the player again turned around and asked, “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, sorry”, Amie said, and started to leave.
“No, no, you can stay. What are you doing here?”
And that is how Amie and Jonathan’s first conversation began…
After they chatted some more and Jonathan finished his game, he asked Amie to grab a bite to eat. Amie remembers that Jonathan seemed honest, sweet and funny, and he answered every random, silly question she had about poker. Afterwards, he walked her outside to a cab. It was really windy and he said, “I guess I must like you to be out in the cold!” She liked him too. Amie was so excited when she landed back in NY the next day and saw he had already emailed her. For the next three weeks they emailed and called each other constantly, and then Jonathan flew to NY to visit. You know the rest… =)
From Jonathan’s perspective:
Before he went to the Bahamas, Jonathan sent his “buy-in” money for the PCA tournament to the tournament managers, to expedite his check-in when he arrived. On the day he flew in and checked in to the Atlantis, he found out the tournament staff had misplaced his funds. They told him they would get this sorted out, and to check back in two hours. His options were to walk back to his hotel room, which was a 30 minute walk away, or stay in the tournament area and play a game. One of his friends invited him to play a private single table tournament with some friends and their girlfriends.
Half an hour in, Jonathan realized a girl was standing behind him. Since all the girlfriends were in the game, he was confused. He decided to turn around and find out who she was and what she was doing there…
Jonathan remembers that he thought Amie was pretty, but that when he took her to eat after his tournament ended, she would not eat any of the food or drink any of the wine he ordered her. (Amie didn’t have the heart to tell him she had already had dinner and drinks an hour earlier.) After eating the whole quesadilla by himself, he walked her to a cab. He ran back to his room and immediately emailed her.
Soon after they started emailing each other, Jonathan got invited to play in a charity poker tournament in NYC aboard the Intrepid. He asked Amie if he could see her when he came to town. She said yes, and you know the rest…!
**Jonathan and Amie are very thankful that her friends let her wander alone her last night in the Bahamas, and that PokerStars lost Jonathan’s money his first night.**
Jonathan and Amie’s first photo together.
Jonathan and Amie’s first trip to Vegas.
Jonathan and Amie ran the NYC marathon.
