Samer Kiki
| Samer Kiki | |
|---|---|
| Born | Samer Mohammed Kiki Jr. |
| Other names | Señor Tilt |
| 🏫 Education | Amherst College (BA) |
| 💼 Occupation |
|
| Known for | Founding Monkey Tilt and Tilt Rips |
Samer Mohammed Kiki Jr., known as Sam Kiki, is a Syrian-American gaming executive and poker player. He is the founder and chief executive of Monkey Tilt, a cryptocurrency-based online casino and sportsbook, and of Tilt Rips, a digital trading-card platform.[1][2][3]
Kiki held executive roles at MGM Resorts International, Caesars Interactive and Game Play Network before founding Monkey Tilt, which launched in March 2024 and has raised more than $50 million. Playing under the name Señor Tilt, he has appeared regularly on the televised cash game High Stakes Poker and on livestreamed cash games.[1][4][5]
Early life and education
Kiki was raised in Las Vegas in a family of Syrian descent and attended Green Valley High School.[1][6] His father emigrated from Syria and worked as a casino general manager.[1][7] As a high school student Kiki received college counselling and standardized-test preparation through the Las Vegas nonprofit Academic Coaching Services Foundation.[8][6] He graduated from Amherst College with a degree in neuroscience in 2013.[1][7]
Career
Early career
After university Kiki worked in finance for about five years before entering the gaming industry.[1] He joined MGM Resorts International, where he worked on sports betting, online gaming and investor relations, and later became head of product and strategy at Caesars Interactive, the digital division of Caesars Entertainment.[1] There he worked on the company's acquisition of the bookmaker William Hill and on partnerships with ESPN and the National Football League, and sat on the board of Caesars' daily fantasy sports platform SuperDraft.[1][9]
In August 2021 the iGaming company Game Play Network appointed Kiki chief commercial officer, with responsibility for its business-to-business partnerships.[10][9][11] He subsequently co-founded the quantitative trading firm Manifold Trading, which invests in digital assets.[1][7] Ather Digital, a company spun out of Manifold in 2022 that developed trading technology for institutional digital-asset traders, was acquired by the firm VersiFi in May 2024.[12][1]
Monkey Tilt
Kiki founded Monkey Tilt, an online casino and sportsbook that accepts wagers in cryptocurrency and launched in March 2024.[4][13] The company raised $21 million in February 2024 from investors including Polychain Capital, Hack VC and PokerGO, and a further $30 million in a Series A round led by Pantera Capital in November 2024, bringing total funding to more than $50 million.[14][13][15][16] Fortune reported that the platform reached about $200 million in monthly betting volume within eight months of launch.[4] Kiki has described the company as an entertainment business rather than a conventional gambling operator.[4][13]
In May 2025 the Nevada Current reported that the Monkey Tilt logo had appeared on a poker table at the Aria Resort and Casino during a PokerGO broadcast, and described the company as an offshore operator that is unavailable to gamblers in the United States.[3] Nevada Gaming Control Board chairman Kirk Hendrick said the board is concerned whenever issues relate to unlicensed gaming, and a member of the California Gambling Control Commission criticised the appearance of the logo at a licensed venue.[3]
Tilt Rips
In May 2026 Kiki launched Tilt Rips, a platform on which users buy and open digital packs corresponding to physical collectible trading cards; the cards are held in third-party vaults and can be shipped to the user, sold back, or listed on the platform's marketplace.[2][17][18] The platform initially offered Pokémon cards and is operated by Tilt Rips LLC, a Nevada company.[2][19]
Poker career
Kiki plays high-stakes cash games under the name Señor Tilt and is a regular on livestreamed and televised cash games, including Hustler Casino Live.[20][5][7] He has recorded two live tournament cashes, totalling $2,146.[21]
He made his High Stakes Poker debut in April 2025, winning a $1,008,500 pot from Rick Salomon that was then the second-largest in the programme's history, and appeared throughout its fifteenth and sixteenth seasons.[22][23][20]
In March 2026 PokerGO chief executive Brent Hanks said that Kiki had set two records during the taping of the sixteenth season: the largest single-day win and the most won across a full season, the latter surpassing a mark previously attributed to Tom Dwan.[23][5] PokerGO produces the programme and is an investor in Monkey Tilt.[4][13]
In a December 2025 Hustler Casino Live game he won a pot of about $1 million but finished the session down $110,000, and in a September 2025 session he was the largest loser at the table, down $258,300.[24][25][26]
Philanthropy
Kiki funds the Sam Kiki College Access Scholarship, administered through the ACS Foundation and Dawson College Bound, which pays for test preparation, writing instruction and tutoring for high school students in Southern Nevada, with preference given to first-generation and lower-income applicants.[6][27] He has said he was able to afford comparable resources as a student only through community philanthropy.[6][8]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 Berman, Marc (6 January 2026). "Sam Kiki: High Stakes On The Table And Behind The Camera". Forbes. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Ekberg, Maggie (13 May 2026). "Why MonkeyTilt Founder Sam Kiki Is Going All-In on Pokémon Cards". Complex. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Gentry, Dana (29 May 2025). "MGM's Aria advertises illegal offshore betting site". Nevada Current. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 "Monkey Tilt raises $30 million in push to make online gambling more social". Fortune. 20 November 2024. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Chaffin, Sean (27 March 2026). "Sam 'Señor Tilt' Kiki Sets Two Records In Upcoming High Stakes Poker Season". Card Player. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "Sam Kiki Launches College Access Scholarship to Help Las Vegas Students Reach Top Schools". VegasNews. June 2026. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "Señor Tilt aka Sam Kiki: Tech, Crypto & High Stakes Poker". GipsyTeam. 8 January 2026. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Breaking Barriers: How ACS Foundation Expands College Access In Nevada". 96.3 KKLZ. 30 June 2025. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Game Play Network announces expansion of leadership team". Gaming America. 31 August 2021. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ "Game Play Network announces key leadership appointments". SBC Americas. 1 September 2021. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ "GPN Hires Four Execs As It Seeks To Expand iGaming Empire". US Bets. 1 September 2021. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ "Crypto firm VersiFi, co-led by former Genesis exec, acquires trading tech startup Ather Digital". The Block. 23 May 2024. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Hunt, James (21 November 2024). "Crypto casino Monkey Tilt raises $30 million Series A led by Pantera Capital". The Block. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ Kitonyi, Nicholas (21 February 2024). "Monkey Tilt Raises $21M for Crypto-Enabled Fantasy Sports Platform". NFTgators. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ "Monkey Tilt raises $30m to push online gaming "into new era"". NEXT.io. 21 November 2024. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ "Ogier advises Monkey Tilt on successful US$30 million Series A funding round". Ogier. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ McCrory, Connor (2026). "Sam Kiki Launches Tilt Rips After Pokémon Cards Hit Record Prices". Inc. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ "Inside Tilt Rips: Sam Kiki's Latest Empire Move Has Nothing to Do With Gambling". Entrepreneur. 18 May 2026. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ "About Tilt Rips". Tilt Rips. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Sofen, Jon (16 December 2025). "Comedian Kevin Hart Headlines the Upcoming Season 15 of High Stakes Poker". PokerNews. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ "Samer Kiki". The Hendon Mob. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ "'Oh my God' – Fireworks on High Stakes Poker in massive $1 million+ pot". Poker.org. 15 April 2025. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 Ryan, Matt (24 March 2026). "Sam Kiki Breaks Two All-Time Records on 'High Stakes Poker' With Insane Haul". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ Sofen, Jon (3 December 2025). "High Roller Attempts Gutsy Bluff Against Set of Kings in $1 Million Pot". PokerNews. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ "The Biggest Hands from HCL's Million Dollar Cash Game". PokerNews. 3 December 2025. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ Sofen, Jon (September 2025). "Retired Poker Star Antonio Esfandiari Proves He Still Has it with Massive HCL Win". PokerNews. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ↑ "Sam Kiki College Access Scholarship". BigFuture. College Board. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
This article "Samer Kiki" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Samer Kiki. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
