Poker High Roller Sam Kiki Trades MonkeyTilt for Pokémon Packs in a Stunning Business Shake-Up

Sam Kiki has won a $424,500 poker pot against Kevin Hart, set two all-time High Stakes Poker records and built a speculation platform that secured $30 million in funding. But after years in the gambling world, the Las Vegas high roller is ready to play a different kind of hand. He's leaving MonkeyTilt behind to put his full attention on Tilt Rips, the trading-card venture he believes has a much bigger future.

"The world does not need another crypto casino but it's going to want the innovation we plan to bring to the collectibles space," Kiki wrote on X on Saturday, October 17. He's got a point. Crypto casinos are hardly a rarity these days, with everyone from Stake and Roobet to Gamdom competing for gamblers' attention. MonkeyTilt, however, isn't short on interested buyers.

In a follow-up video, Kiki revealed that several parties have reached out in recent months because they "really liked our tech and product and want to launch something in that space." He said MonkeyTilt could have kept running profitably and may even relaunch under a different name, but he's choosing to focus entirely on collectibles. "We cannot afford to have a minute of our bandwidth taken away from what we are doing," he explained.

And he's bringing MonkeyTilt's earliest backers along for the ride. "People didn't invest in a casino or a sportsbook," Kiki said. "They invested in Sam Kiki." According to the founder, day-one investors and early employees who held equity in MonkeyTilt received equivalent stakes in Tilt Rips without being asked to invest again. "The enterprise value of this has already exceeded everything we've built with Monkeytilt."

It's not a bad time to be chasing Pokémon cards, either. The franchise turned 30 this year, and its September anniversary release brought back classic cards alongside 30 different Pikachu designs. According to MarketWatch, Mizuho analysts spotted lines of more than 100 shoppers at some Target stores in New York and New Jersey when the cards dropped.

Collectors with deeper pockets have been busy, too. Last month, a rare Pikachu Illustrator card sold for $5 million at Heritage Auctions, helping its two-day trading-card-games sale reach a record $12.18 million.

That's the market Tilt Rips is tapping into. Launched in May, the platform lets collectors open digital packs backed by real trading cards, which can be stored for free, listed on its marketplace or shipped home. There's also an instant sellback option at 90% of live market value, according to the company's website.

And unlike poker, collecting is something Kiki can share with his kids. "It is so incredible," the father of three said, explaining how his children sometimes end up teaching him about Pokémon. "My bond with my children has gotten so much stronger in the last year."

The change seems to be doing his team some good as well. "We all feel like kids again," Kiki wrote, adding that the group is "happier than it's ever been."

As for MonkeyTilt, the site stopped accepting bets on October 13 and is scheduled to close November 9. Kiki, meanwhile, is only looking ahead: "We are just getting started."