Celebrity Poker: The Dream

Celebrities can develop their sense of social responsibility by playing poker. They can also help improve the awareness of people about the game of poker. These people can serve as good examples for the people who are watching them. Like singer The Dream who played poker to help people from Africa.

Celebrity poker player The Dream, with her girlfriend Christina Milian were spotted earlier this week at a Celebrity Charity Poker Tournament held in luxurious Monte-Carlo. Online casino poker site, PokerStars launched their first Ante Up for Africa charity poker tournament was held last night in Monaco on the eve of the European Poker Tour (EPT) Monte Carlo Grand Final. The live event raised €260,000 for the Darfur charities.

With a total of 40 runners put up €4,000 each to play in the massive fundraiser, creating a €160,000 prize pool that was donated to charity. PokerStars, which sponsored the Monaco tournament, donated another €100,000. In the end, Team PokerStars Pro member Isabelle Mercier emerged as its champion, defeating Teddy Sheringham. However, the grand prize package, a trip to the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, went to Sheringham, a British soccer player who was a member of the Manchester United in the late 1990s.

With the help of the poker icon Annie Duke, Don Cheadle, and Norman Epstein founded Ante Up for Africa 3 years ago. To date, it has helped raise over $2,000,000 for the cause, including $245,000 generated from NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice”.

About The Dream: Terius Nash or simply “The Dream”, Born in North Carolina, Terius Nash was raised in the Bankhead section of Atlanta, Georgia. Before he found his calling in music, the industrious young man made ends meet doing everything from working at Checkers to becoming a collections agent.

After graduating from H.S., The Dream joined a singing group, Guess Who, signed by local rapper Raheem. They sang the hook to “Most Beautiful Girl,” which became moderately successful. “It did pretty good, got a lot of spins,” says The Dream. A few years later, The–Dream began writings songs for up–and–coming rappers and hooks for his peers. He got his first publishing deal in 2003, when he signed to Peer Music after writing B2K’s single, “Everything.” The song, off B2K’s platinum sophomore album, Pandemonium, truly put The–Dream on the map. “My grand daddy told me I would never make any money in this business. Music just wasn’t a reality for him. I never knew until I was 21 or 22 that I could actually be successful in the music business.” The Dream said.

With one success under his belt, Terius began to build momentum and soon found himself associating with the upper echelons of pop stardom. “A year after B2K I did the Britney Spears and Madonna record, I recorded vocals and wrote to that record after Tricky, the guy I did “Umbrella” with, decided he didn’t want the track anymore. I was the new guy in the building so I stayed overnight running in and out the booth recording myself in Pro Tools. Tricky and a writer before me, Penelope, went up to N.Y. [to meet] Britney. They played a lot of songs and Britney was like, I dunno. Then they got to “Me Against the Music” and she was like, “Oh, I’m digging that. I love that hook!” The Dream continued.

Unfortunately, that song didn’t push The–Dream to the level he wanted to reach. He spent two years working on other projects including Nivea’s second album, which he executive produced. “Trick and I just started making records. By the time we got to "Umbrella" we were like ‘ok, we got it.’” Dream insisted that L.A Reid hear the song and the rest is history.

Now The–Dream is finally in the building, combining all of his hit–making talents for his debut, Love Me All Summer, Hate Me All Winter. Throughout his career, Dream has seen people change like the weather, but in the coming months he is forecasting a 100% chance of reign.