What do celebrities William Hung and Miko Hughes have in common?
They both played in the 2022 Vegas Market Celebrity Poker Tournament hosted by Ante4Autism.
The annual fundraiser, founded by Doug Krinsky in 2009, has raised over 1 million dollars to date. This year, celebrities and industry veterans alike played alongside one another to help raise almost $140,000. The winner, American Idol celebrity, William Hung (known for the infamous rendition of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs!” song from Season 3) walked away the ultimate champion of the event. Other celebrities included Miko Hughes, Jose Conseco, Dennis Haskins, Erik Seidel, and more.
Ante4Autism exists to provide needed support and resources for individuals and families affected by autism. As of 2022, 1 in 44 individuals will be diagnosed with autism. The funds raised at this year’s event went to five major charities, including the national charity, Autism Speaks.
Listen or watch now to get an in-depth review on all the players, the antics and an update on Brooklyn Bedding!
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Mark Kinsley
Oh, it turns into a celebrity poker tournament to raise money for a fantastic cause. Shebang She Bangs! You’re never gonna believe who won this year’s anti4autism poker tournament during Las Vegas market. Doug Krinsky is on the show today in the Dos Marcos show begins right now.
Mark Kinsley
Mr. Doug Krinsky on the podcast today, we’re just on the heels in the wake of Las Vegas market. And Doug, thank you so much for being on the show.
Doug Krinsky
Thanks for having me. I love being on I listen to you guys all the time. And as you know, I know you guys very well Adeboye
Mark Kinsley
I know that you’re for fact your favourite mark is Mark.
Mark Quinn
Yeah, with the brown hair, obviously, with the middle name of Allen, I think is safe. You know, Kinsley, my favourite, my favourite memory of being at Doug’s event. And if you haven’t been we, we kind of talked about it before on our show. But if you haven’t been to Doug’s NT for autism event, that number one is incredible, cause but number two is so much fun. So I’m sitting Kinsley, so every now and then he has these celebrities, and he’s going to talk about the celebrity that won this event, but some sitting there in a plane next to this guy and this whole game, and then that like is his speech. And he’s like, hey, you know, if you’re one of the celebrities, we stand up and this guy sitting next to me, I’ve been talking to all game stands up on like, oh, wow, okay, so like, what like, what kind of celebrity Are you like, what do you do what I know you? They said, Well, I was in one really big movie. And I said, What movie was that? And he said, Kindergarten Cop. And I’m like, no kidding. I’m like, what role did you have? And he says, remember that line? The little boy says, boys have penises. Girls have vaginas. I go Yeah, he said, that was me.
Doug Krinsky
No
Mark Quinn
freakin way. And so we talked for like an hour about that I was cracking up and I’m like, did it ever help you get girls? And he’s like, Oh my gosh. He’s like when you tell people that it’s so funny, because everybody knows the movie. And everybody knows the line. So I feel like really lucky. I got to meet that person. It’s like started.
Mark Kinsley
I remember. Congratulations. Yeah, congratulations, Quinn. I remember. The one year I wasn’t there that Jose Canseco was in the house. And so Conseco of course, a big baseball player Oakland A’s back in the day, and Conseco apparently had done something to his finger. The rumour was he shot off his finger with a gun. And so the whole night, I was trying to manoeuvre my way around to see what had happened to the finger. And, and I couldn’t see he kept it guarded the whole night. And then all of a sudden, he was playing a hand. And he revealed the ring finger that apparently had been shot off and, and it was there and it had some sort of brace across it like this, if you’re looking on camera, and it’s some sort of brace that brace those two fingers together, and I’m like, it looks like a real finger to me. So the celebrity sightings and the fun that’s had I mean, Randy Couture’s you know, fists were as big as my head. You know, he’s a professional MMA fighter it was. So it’s a lot of fun. I mean, and then you have industry people gathering, Doug, tell us about this year’s event and some of the highlights for you and for the people that attended.
Doug Krinsky
Well, the highlight again, for me is one of our charities was there again, this year, tour University out in Las Vegas. And, you know, it’s nice when the folks that come to play can actually mingle with the folks that are charities so they understand exactly why we’re doing what we do. So on top of that, as you mentioned before, our good friend William Hung one tournament this year. And for those that do remember, William, he was the guy on American Idol, I think year three that got up there and did sort of what I’ll call a comedy routine of singing. And his famous line was She Bangs She Bangs And what’s funny is my co host, Karina Jett gets all the celebrities to say something. And of course, he got up there again here and sang a little song. And of course, everybody remembers it. So it was pretty comical again this year, but for him to go all the way. You know, for 130 140 players, we had to win it in the end. That was out stupidity when pretty cool. He won, I think about $2,400 when he won, that turns up ed. So what we do is we spread it amongst the final table. So the final 10 players actually win money so we want everybody to walk away with something at the end for their heart. work. And frankly, some give back. Some don’t. We want them to keep it and go tell their friends about the tournament. So next year they’ll bring friends bring more friends and word of mouth is our best advertising. So that was great. Who
Mark Kinsley
else was in attendance this year that people might recognise on the celebrity side.
Doug Krinsky
The big poker players this year, and again, you may or may not know them, but World Series of Poker is a big thing on ESPN. And their number one commentators again in Norman Chad. So Norm comes every year. He’s got a great sense of humour, very dry sense of humour. But he’s the big guy that does the announcing for what it was. There’s a poker, we had two actually outstanding poker players. There’s a bunch of them. But there’s one that everybody knows Mike the mouth, Matt as I was there, and he was in rare form, again, Jeff Madsen was there they both won four or five World Series of Poker bracelets. So those guys were there. Chris Loretta was there from Housewives of New Jersey. His wife, Jacqueline was supposed to be there. But they have kids one on the spectrum. And they are babysitter didn’t show up. So of course, she got to do your mom thing. And she stayed at home while Chris came and played. Again, Chris and Jackie are the best people in the world. They’ve actually moved to Las Vegas now away from New Jersey. So he was there played two pictures. And what’s nice about our tournament, I know you guys have been there is the celebrities, the poker players that are professionals that come are so nice with our players. They’ll take pictures have conversations, they’re not standoffish. We’re not heavy on the cause. And we’re very light on the cause. But we understand that, you know, they want to come and have fun. We talk about the cause. But those are probably the highlights of who came this year.
Mark Quinn
Tell us about the cause. Now speaking of that, how much money has NT for autism raised? And where’s that money going?
Doug Krinsky
Well over the this was our 14th year. And I have a couple of announcements today. So I’m gonna announce a couple things. Publicly, I broke that we raised about 125,000. This week when I did the first press release, but we’ve added it up. It’s actually 139,000 We raise this year. So that’s actually one of our better events. Thank you very much. Well, you got it all queued up for me.
Mark Kinsley
Hey, the applause is really just came in at the exact right time. That is huge. Doug. Great total.
Mark Quinn
I never get the applause but can Doug ever so you’re
Doug Krinsky
special. You know, I’ve noticed that even after tequila shots are out of step
Mark Kinsley
to get the walk walk button, but I can’t find it in the right moment for Colin.
Doug Krinsky
By the way, you’ll notice behind me is my presenting sponsors table felt for $125,000 but kiddingly behind that speaking of tequila shots are all my pictures of Sammy Hagar is Cabo Wabo tequila. So just a little side note there. I’m a fan. So. But anyway, getting back to Auntie for autism, we’ve now raised about 1,200,000. Over our 14 years. Where does all that money go? Well, each year, we have five different charities that we donate the net proceeds of the event. So each year, we split it up evenly amongst the five charities. This year, we’ve rotated in a couple of new charities, as you see on my collar here. Autism Speaks is one of the biggest entities out there in the world. They do great work. They’re always one of our charities, National Autism Association of Southeast Ohio. They get down into South and East Ohio, they get into West Virginia, Appalachia. So for the families that need services, therapy, they need to go to a convention. There, they need transportation for their kids. And they provide that we have three other charities Toro University out in Las Vegas, they do tremendous work with kids. They work with pre k up to about age 13. And they’ll do things from as an example my son when he was four, he couldn’t speak. So we got him into Nationwide Children’s here in Columbus, Ohio. And he’s now 24, he can speak and carry on conversations. So these charities get in early as early as they can intervene and help these kids weighed in whatever way they need. Some of them also help adults on the spectrum. My son is 24. He still goes through horse therapy, which is one of the charities this year, it helps him with his balance, occupational therapy. So even at 24. He’s adults on the spectrum need help, in addition to the kids that need help, so each year, we have five different autism related charities that help the kids and the adults and the families. Because it’s very important for the support network to get whatever they need to help the individual on the spectrum as well. So it’s a wide variety
Mark Kinsley
of based on the statistics that I kept hearing at the tournament over the years, I noticed that the number of people on the spectrum was growing. I think the number the last number I heard was one in 44 Children and were identified on the autism spectrum. Is that number correct? Number one, what’s, what are the latest stats, and then in what you understand by working with these organisations through the charity, what is leading to that increase?
Doug Krinsky
Actually, that’s the latest number from the Centres for Disease Control, they’re the entity that really we’d look to for numbers. So it’s 144 Kids will be born today and end up on the autism spectrum. So I think there’s a wide variety of reasons why it continues to be a higher prevalence every time they kind of measure that. I think, number one, the environment has impacts. I think, you know, your body, you know, your mark, and your mark, and your DNA is different from dogs. So you impact with the environment differently than I do. So as your body just like, you know, I’ve hay fever every spring, you know, everybody has no hay fever. But I think what’s happened is, because the environment, and again, it’s a sort of my opinion on it, but the environment has so many. And I’ll just use the word chemicals out there, that I think as your body interacts with them, you know, people act differently. And I think the more preservatives in food, and I’ll throw that in there, I mean, there’s a lot of factors that play into this. You know, I do also believe that back in the day, when Mercury was in some of the vaccines, that preservative, it’s a heavy metal. I know that there’s several parents that have kids that I know that were impacted by those vaccines, you know, is our vaccines are the cause of it. No, but has an impact in some of those kids, because their DNA is different from other kids. Yes. So there’s just unfortunately, and I’ll give you a short story, it’s a long story. But a short story, probably about 1819 years ago, I was appointed to the official Ohio autism Task Force, the area that I focused on was prevalent. So it was growing, then actually, when I got in, and my son was diagnosed, it was one in 10,000 kids, and we knew it was growing. Now it’s one in 44. It’s incredible. But we tried to look at what is causing the problem. And the problem is you can’t identify one thing or two things that’s causing it, and it does continue to grow. And fortunately, we do have the federal government kicking in money with Autism Speaks, and other entities to try and investigate, do research to try and find out what is causing it. And really, my focus is really on treatment and therapy for the individuals that have been diagnosed, what can we do to help them and their families. So as much as the government and as are going after the research, I really can’t impact I know Roger Maga wits that has enough money that can go out there and make an impact on the research. But what I can do is we can have an impact on the individuals that need therapy and support. So that’s what we focus on. Wow. So glad to see that mouthful.
Mark Quinn
I know you’re just you’re doing a lot of good stuff. And you know, autism is one of those things. I think we’ve all been impacted by that. And so the fact that you’re out there, making those things happen, and raising that kind of money well done, Mark and I have been to the event. Happy to say that I usually last a lot longer on the tables than Kinsley He usually goes out pretty quick, but he’s getting better. So I think he’ll work his way up to the final table someday. And then when he does, maybe he can like stand up and like she bang she bang and then like bring joy to people. Kinsley, what do you think about that?
Mark Kinsley
Well, I have a claim to fame. Okay, do you have a claim to fame? Oh, yes. Two tournaments ago, I actually played and there was a gentleman that sat down on my left. And if you know anything about poker, you know, you want to be to somebody’s right. And so the gentleman is opening hand of the tournament, and I got dealt a queen, eight offsuit. And there was tonnes of action though I was a little bit late on the table, tonnes of action all the way around. And I was like, Okay, I’ll see a flop. So the flop was Queen, eight, nine, I think. And so I had to pair and I’m sitting pretty tight, and then more action all the way around. I was like, Well, I’m gonna ride this out. I know it’s early in the tournament. So I ended up knocking out everybody including the guy to my left ship jet. Right out right out of the gates. Now, Doug, tell people who chip is.
Doug Krinsky
Well, you’ll be happy to hear that he actually won the event last year, the year after you’re not gonna help. But chip jet is actually a professional poker player, married to Karina Jett, which is one of my co hosts of the event. They live in Las Vegas. I just talked to chip at the event couple days ago. He must have spent 1000s and 1000s. He just played in a World Series of Poker. I think he was in as many as 15 different events during the World Series. And I think what people don’t know is a World Series of Poker is one main event on TV. But there are literally dozens and Dozens and dozens of other World Series of Poker events that happen during the big tournament out there. Chip is a fantastic person, as his Kareena. He’s a tremendous poker player. And again, he won last year and got second place this year,
Mark Kinsley
when I did, so I didn’t last very long in that tournament Quinn’s right. The next year I played I, I decided I was going to try to push people out early on, and I had pocket aces. And Karina was playing with me at that table. And Karina knocks me out with pocket aces. And I went all in early to try and push out the action. But it didn’t never know. Yeah, it shipped bought back in and he went way further than me in the tournament, but wonderful people wonderful cause you’re a wonderful guy. And I just love that we’re raising awareness about something that impacts a lot of people in our industry, their families, and a lot of people you know, around the world. And it’s interesting to hear your take on it, Doug, because this idea of, you know, genetic expression or your body and your, the way that you interface with the environment is different for everybody. And I love that you’re helping people that have you know, family members and loved ones in their home every day that are dealing with these challenges and building them back up. And hey, you know what, for people who don’t know you outside of your auntie for autism role, you’re with Brooklyn bedding, and Brooklyn bedding, you know, a great company with a lot of different brands making a lot of news lately. Give us since you’re here, give us some updates on Brooklyn bedding, because I know there was a recent acquisition.
Doug Krinsky
There was Thank you very much. Again, before we get off the ad for autism, I do have to thank you guys for putting me on. The amount of exposure we’ll get with this will be tremendous, and it’ll help the cause so thank you on Brooklyn bedding. Yes, we recently brought in bears mattress, great company. They do a tremendous job at what they do. But they’re slightly different from the merger that happened with Cerberus really last year. So now we have three tremendous brands, we have Brooklyn bedding, which Brooklyn bedding does a lot of different things. I’m part of the wholesale division. You guys know me from my certain my Restonic days of selling on the road and managing on the road. That’s what I continue to do for Brooklyn. So I’m in their wholesale division. But on the Brooklyn side, you know, the tremendous branch managers website, we have retail stores, but we got together with helix sleep. And now we have bears mattress. So we have three tremendous brands that you know, direct to consumer wise, you know, they do a tremendous job and they do a little different thing. Each one of them has a little different niche amount of business that they do. But you know, together combined with our service folks, we will accelerate growth for all three brands. I’m really not up to speed on everything going on in that division. But you know, John Merlyn, he and his brother the founded the company do a tremendous job. John is still very active in the business on the winning tremendous market. So all in all, great acquisition, great merger, great brand. And we hope to continue to allow them and help them explode their business. So it’s
Mark Quinn
great. You know, I got to go in the showroom, Doug, and sly Eric Johnson there and I got to see you and was impressed. You guys are doing some great stuff with products. So hadn’t hats off to you guys. And, Doug, I’ve known you for a long time. And I want to thank you again, on behalf of Kinsley and I, we love to try to make it to that event. But it’s so tough with that are so we’re going to try to be better about getting to it. But the thing I also want to say mark, and I know you’ll feel the same way about this, but one of the reasons I love this industry is because it comes out. And it supports people like Doug and Roger Matic Maga wits with a mega watts Foundation. And we’re just so good at rallying around the causes that are important to the people in the category. And so for all of you that have supported Doug in the past or Roger, or attend these events, I just want to thank you on behalf of the fam and just say keep doing it man because that’s what it’s all about. It’s about our fam, it’s about coming together around causes that are important around people that are important. And it’s just that’s what it’s what makes me so proud to be in the mattress and accessories and sleep business. So well done. Aikens like.
Mark Kinsley
Yeah, and I just want to put an exclamation point on it. If you weren’t able to give or be there, you can head over to Auntie for autism and it’s Auntie the number for autism.com and there’s a Donate button up in the right hand corner. And we can you know, extend the mission even beyond market and even beyond the tournament. So, Doug, thank you for giving people a path there to to continue You to give. And of course, you know, when you subscribe to fam dot news leading up to the event, we publish the information that Doug and his team put out to make sure you know, when the tournament is who’s going to be there and how much fun and all the different people from the industry that that have given. So you’re, you’re in good company that that banner behind you. You know, we were always very proud to work for leggett and Platt. We’re always very proud of our leader there, Carl Glassman and Kathy Glassman for their generous hearts. And they’re the ones that got us plugged into it. I remember I walked into the room years ago, there’s like three tables, and now you’re filling up casino rooms. So well done. And Doug, Did we miss anything you want to say?
Doug Krinsky
A couple things. Yeah. I do have to agree with you on Carl the last minute, Kathy, you talked about a leader that leads by example. And again, Carl and Kathy donated personally this year as well. But he’s also handed it off to Mitch and Tyson over it. Look at I can’t thank them enough for continuing to lead as presenting sponsor $25,000 For our event is tremendous. one more announcement, I guess I’ll make was a trifecta for me, which is betting industries of America is going to come back again, as our final table sponsor, furniture first shirt I’m wearing today, if you can see it, they’re going to come back as another $10,000 sponsor next year. And it just heard from Tom that plan furniture, promotions, PFP. They’re going to come back as a sponsor again this year. So love our sponsors, love our players love Mark, and Mark and really appreciate what you guys are doing as well. So that catches me up on everything. And, again, we appreciate everybody helping the cause. But it’s really helping the kids. The kids are the winners, the adults on the spectrum and their families, because they’ll get the support and therapy they need. So that’s where
Mark Kinsley
really, Doug, thanks so much for being on the show. And thank you to like you said betting industries of America. I know Stuart karlitz and his heart and his family and the the teammate, the team members there from BIA. And you know all plan furniture, promotions furniture first. I mean, wow. I mean, just to have that endorsement. As soon as you come out of this event saying we’re in we’re back in let’s keep this mission moving forward. That’s huge. So Doug, thanks again for being on the show. Thanks for all you do and we look forward to getting caught up and we may have to reel in John Merwin at some point so you may want to grease the skids for us there. We’ll get John on the show at some point. All right.
Mark Quinn
And if you’re listening to this show, yeah, you bet. Thanks guys listening to the show. Don’t forget share it out. Tell everybody about Auntie for autism and the fam we love all of you. Thanks for listening
