Help Clinton Robinson play the
All in for Cerebral Palsy
charity tournament in Vegas
Clint was born on October 30th 1983. He was three months premature and was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy shortly after. His twin brother Don did not share the same condition.
Clint started walking when he was two years old with the help of callipers as he walks on the tips of his toes instead of his heels.
He has had seven operations to try and fix his legs to help him walk better.
Those were at Ages 2, 3, 5,10,15,17 and 19.
I first met Clinton Robinson in 1999. We instantly both hit it off as friends due to our love of Pro Wrestling.
I was aware of his disability at the time, and I never let it influence me.
School was tough for Clint, constantly being teased and bullied; at school he attended special education classes for the remainder of his school years.
He left school in the year 1999 and went on a disability pension due to his disability.
Clint was turning 18 and he couldn’t work or drive and had no idea what to do with his life.
In 2005 at the age of 22 Clint watched his first-ever poker game on television. It was Celebrity Poker Showdown on Fox8 and he really enjoyed it.
He then started watching the WPT and went on the WPT website which had an online poker simulation and he played it often.
It was around this time he started playing free rolls on Full Tilt, for which he started to live and breathe poker.
For a long time he tried to get me into poker but I couldn’t understand why, however now I wish I did like it back then because it is the world’s greatest game.
For the next two years he continued to play free rolls and watch poker on TV.
Clint was around 24 years old when we decided to go to the local pub to play poker. Due to nerves Clint opted out of playing and instead decided to watch me play.
Even with the love of the poker he felt he didn’t have the social skills to play.
That was the year Clint fell into heavy depression for around eight months, in which he refused to speak. I would say he spoke about 5 minutes of words in eight months. He didn’t want to eat or drink, and was on various prescriptions prescribed by a psychologist and no one knew why. After many psychological visits and doctors appointments, nothing was working.
2009 New Year’s Eve is when Clint came out of his depression and to this day we don’t know what he was feeling but we know he was at a very dark place.
After looking back at his depression he believes the reason why he came back was Poker. He remembered how much he loved watching it and playing it. This was when he decided he was going to play and not let his disability stop him.
He played his first pub poker event. NLHE 5 tables and loved it. This was before you could play cash events at pubs here in Australia.
Every Monday and Wednesday for the next two years he continued to play.
He then started to play other pub events; everyone started to know Chops at this time.
During 2009 I went to Crown Casino to play poker with him and he was a bit intimidated to play live so we played Poker Pro (Simulation Poker).
Later in the year we went back to Crown and Clint and I played a small $50 minimum buy in $1/$2 table cash game and he won about $300, and loved every minute of it.
He is honestly the life of poker in Ballarat. Everyone loves him and gets along with him. He is one of the most sociable people at poker now.
From his big pot cheers, to his bluff attempts, to his table talk everyone absolutely thinks he is great.
Not only that, he is the best player I know, Heads up and MTT’s. He usually finishes in the top three, usually around 15-25 players.
One great accomplishment Clint achieved was to learn how to shuffle. Since he started playing poker he could never shuffle due to his disability but April this year he finally mastered shuffling which was fantastic to see.
Knowing Clint for 12 years now I can honestly say after everything that has happened to him; disability, depression, Taunting, Teasing, Social skills; Clint has found his passion.
He first heard about the All in for CP charity event when he searched “Poker players with Cerebral Palsy. “
When I told Clint that I was arranging to get him sponsored he was speechless, and for the next 5 minutes thought I was pulling his leg.
He even said to me that he will wake up tomorrow and this was all just a dream.
I truly hope we can arrange this for not only him but his family. They are proud of what he has accomplished not only with Poker but his social skills and the friends he has made on the poker tables.
All in for CP charity event will be held on December 10 at The Venetian in Las Vegas and for Clint to be able to attend with flights, accommodation and carer will cost around $5000.
If you can help in sponsoring Clint in anyway please donate and help out a great cause.
Use Facebook to Leave a Comment
Nothing gets posted to your wall. Only your Facebook name & photo are used.
Good luck ChopsBest wishes im thinking of you m8 you will be back at the table smashing me up before you know it chin up im lookin forward to it ;-)
posted by Garry Vanderheyden 10 months ago
Good Luck Chops, couldnt think of a better ambassador for the cause, and we are sending you our bist wishes and hope you get there.
posted by Brad 11 months ago