PokerWorks

PokerStars’ newest two members to its growing team should give you hope that one day you could join the ranks of Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, and Barry Greenstein.

Meet William Thorson. He started playing poker after learning the game from his father. And here’s Marcin Horecki. He began playing poker after cutting his teeth at, of all things, “Magic: The Gathering.” Yep, that fantasy card game played by kids and maybe a few adults who never got over their addictions to “Dungeons and Dragons.”

And both of them started at the play money tables. You remember those days, right? When you had to reload twice and tilted when the site made you wait the next day to get another grand in fantasy bucks? When you eventually got good enough to play at the high stakes money games and a $10,000 buy-in wasn’t a big deal? I do. Ah, the memories.

Thorson learned poker the way many of us do, from those late-night card games with family, where you might be betting pennies, peanuts (literally) or maybe who has to take out the garbage.

When he decided to graduate to full-time poker, he started out with play money too, until he progressed to real money games.

Thorson joined PokerStars in 2002, and just to show how long he’s been honing his game on that site, his screen name is “William.” That’s it. “William.” Not “William206783” or “WilliamWins.” Just “William.” Good luck finding such a popular name available on the site today.

Maybe your first deposit on a site was, say, $50. Don’t be embarrassed. That’s all Thorson started with as well. Only that’s all he’s ever deposited.

We’re guessing his bankroll on that site is a little larger now. Thorson cashed four times at the World Series of Poker, including his 13th-place finish in 2006.

He won more than $900,000 that year and his live tournament cashes now total more than $1.6 million. He made the final table at the PokerStars European Poker Tour San Remo and finished ninth at the Caribbean Adventure earlier this year.

Polish superstar Horecki also had humble beginnings at the play money tables at PokerStars, but he slowly worked his way up through the low-limit tournaments and cash tables, all while dreaming of becoming a PokerStars’ Pro.

His first score was in 2006 at the Barcelona Open. He only earned just under $4,000, but even that small amount gave him the confidence to turn pro, and in April 2007, he won $29,000 and made the final table of the Asian Poker Classic.

Later that year, he played in the Asian Masters and won the No Limit Hold’Em Rebuy event for almost $30,000. This March he cashed in an EPT Polish Open side event, earning almost $10,000 and making the final table.

They got their start playing on PokerStars. If you'd like to give it a shot, download PokerStars now and you'll get an exclusive PokerWorks bonus of $25 free in addition to a 100 percent matching bonus up to $50. You must enter the marketing code of POKERWORKS upon registration and the bonus code of FIRST2008 upon your first deposit.

By working through their humble starts, the way millions of us do, they eventually made their dreams come true and joined the PokerStars Pro Team. Maybe one day you can too.