Matthew Hilger : Founder and Author

Matthew Hilger is from Atlanta, Georgia. He received his BBA in Finance at the University of Georgia and followed that with a Master's in Finance at Georgia State University. He then worked for a few years with Andersen Consulting (currently known as Accenture) doing consulting work mainly for the banking industry.

Matthew then moved to Phoenix, Arizona to pursue a Master's in International Management from Thunderbird. It was in Phoenix where he played his first game of Texas Hold'em at a local Indian reservation. He graduated in 1996 and began working for Chiquita Brands International in Cincinnati. His poker game was put on hold until they transferred him to their division in Costa Rica.

In Costa Rica he played his first no-limit tournament and started to play poker with more frequency. Costa Rica was a great place to hone his skills with some of the top players in the world such as Humberto Brenes, Dr. Max Stern, and Jose Rosenkrantz. In 1999, Matthew began working for Bristol-Myers Squibb as their Finance Director for Central America.

The following year, Bristol transferred him to Argentina. Argentina did not have any live poker games, and he soon discovered Internet Poker. His early success on the Internet fueled his passion further and he started to study the game seriously. He was soon hooked, and after a vacation to New Zealand, decided to move there with his wife and started playing professionally on the Internet. Matthew has now played over 10,000 hours of poker on the Internet playing at limits from $1-$2 up to $100-$200 and many online tournaments. He writes a column for CardPlayer magazine and has been featured in magazines and periodicals including the Wall Street Journal, All-In, Slate, and the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.

Albert Sands aka sandsstorm : Site Manager

Albert is a former full time poker professional, spending his time conquering 15/30 and 30/60 limit holdem. Additionally, he has more than 15 years of business, sales and management experience "in the real world". He now spends his days managing Dimat Online, the parent company of InternetTexasHoldem.com, InternetPokerRankings.com among other sites.

Additionally, Albert is the 2006 ITH Convention No Limit Texas Holdem Main Event reigning champion. The heads up battle between Albert & Founder Matthew continues to haunt Matthew - as Albert completely dominated the match up - until Matthew went all in with 5-3 offsuit, but the mystic hand failed to live up to it's former glory. He looks forward to seeing all the ITH Members at the 2007 convention to defend his title.

He is married with 3 growing sons residing in Peachtree City, GA. You can find Albert "sandsstorm" on the forum (link), but rarely playing poker anymore thanks to the US Gov't and the growth of this site! He still is very active in poker, especially live poker and college sports.

Patrick Kidda : Internet Marketing Director

"On the web, poker-related topics are hotter than Paris Hilton. That's why I'm here. " I'm Patrick Kidda, aka Maverick_the_Donkey & (sometimes) Mr. Pokernut. Although I love losing money at Texas Holdem Bonus Tables, my passion is how the internet is being intertwined in our information paths. I always planned to do this & hold Marketing & Computer Information Systems degrees. I first worked as a semi pro snowboarder and marketing associate at a farsighted web marketing company in the travel / vacation industry. Next I moved to Atlanta, GA, to work as a Partner & SEO Director at NeboWeb. Eventually, SEO had lost it's challenege & excitement. I wanted to focus on the whole picture and found an opportunity to do so at ITH.

The team and atmosphere at ITH are refreshing, and a month in Vegas at the WSOP is not a bad work assignment. I love working to build and promote the community and resources here, and have always found success doing what I love. In my spare time, I fit in as much play as I can. Boardsports, live music, history / current events, & family / friends are my main pursuits.

Bill Liming : Customer Support Manager

By June 2004 Paul Ferner had never played a hand of poker. He had passed 13 out of 15 Actuarial exams and had fallen into a rut with both his job and his exams. Having read an article about online poker in a magazine he managed to lose over $1,000 in one day and more besides in the days and weeks that allowed. Luckily he discovered Matthew's first book and began his poker education in earnest. He quit his job and had planned to sell up and go travelling. Whilst waiting for a buyer he was playing a lot of poker and managed to pay his bills for a couple of months..With the help of lots of available
literature and the immense support and knowledge base provided by the ITH forum he manage to find away through. Months rolled on and 15 months, and 800,000 hands of limit holdem, later he returned to the world of work as a contractor.

New and improved with a lot self insight gained by the (at times tough) grind required to pay the bills playing poker. He is now enjoying playing poker for fun for the first time in his career.

Find him on the Forum

Dave Stewart : Content Manager

Piscivorous, aka Dave Stewart, is a former Intelligence NCO with the United States Army, and once spoke fluent German. In the private sector, Dave has been a production planner and factory scheduler for a few major corporations in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has also been a supervisor in a major book retailer as well as a daycare provider for a local school.

In 2003, along with many other players, Dave found internet poker following the 2003 WSOP and the launch of the WPT’s inaugural season. He was in the beginnings of an online semi-professional poker career when wooed away by Albert to head up the research and review process of the online poker sites in ITH’s new bonus and review section.

Dave now continues to fulfill these duties as well as track all of the tournaments for the 2007 IPOY. Dave has been a member of ITH since early 2004.