Justin Marchand grew up in St. Louis, Missouri but began to travel when he attended college at Colorado State University. Upon graduation with a journalism degree, he moved to Washington, D.C. to work in media and even worked overseas for a time. Eventually, he settled in Portland, Oregon where his wife was pursuing her Ph.D. Finally, about three years ago, the couple moved to Las Vegas, where he got a job working for Card Player Magazine. The media company has since expanded, and he has grown with it, as he started in public relations and is now the Chief Media Officer for CardPlayer Media and the Associate Publisher for CardPlayer Magazine.

It only made sense that Justin knew the game of poker. Not only did he have some experience with the game from his days in Oregon where he played in home games and at the Indian casinos in the area, but he began to write about the game and its players for a living. Being immersed in the poker world, he learned more about the game than he could have imagined. And having been athletic all his life, he couldn’t help but be attracted to the competition. Though he plays mostly low stakes online games, he enjoys what games he does play.

On a routine trip for work, Justin found himself in Los Angeles in late February of 2008 to cover the L.A. Poker Classic for CardPlayer. During his stay, he played in a media tournament and won a seat into the WPT Celebrity Invitational. Hoping to represent the poker media well, he did better than anticipated and made it to the final table of the event. He ended up finishing in fourth place for a $15,000 payday. Not a bad story to write about in the next issue of the magazine.