Sam Kiki Goes Viral Reading His 2009 Harvard Waitlist Letter Before Announcing Campus Poker Event
Sam “Señor Tilt” Kiki, CEO of MonkeyTilt, shares his strategies for winning millions at the table and building venture-backed companies.
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A professional poker player who held onto his Harvard rejection email for nearly two decades turned the long-delayed correspondence into a viral moment, and then showed up on campus to prove the wait was worth it.
Sam Kiki, known in poker circles as “Señor Tilt,” posted an Instagram Reel earlier in the week that quickly gained traction online. In the video, he addressed the Harvard Undergraduate Poker Club before pulling out his phone to read aloud a message he had received on March 31, 2009.
“I am writing to inform you that the Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid cannot at this time make a final decision on your application for a place in next year’s entering class,” Kiki read from the screen. “However, because of your outstanding achievements and promise, the committee has voted to place your name on a waiting list.”
He looked up from his phone and delivered the punchline with a grin.
“I just want to say, my dad and I have been checking the mail for 17 years, it’s happening, Pops,” Kiki said. “We’re going to Harvard.”
The clip closed with title cards confirming the dates of April 24–25 for an on-campus lecture and poker game with the club. The event took place as scheduled.
The video drew an immediate wave of responses on social media:
“This is fire bro happy to see you doing well ❤️🔥,” one person wrote.
“SAM THE GOAT 🔥,” another said.
“17 years later we’re back,” chimed in a third.
Kiki’s road from the waitlist to the lecture hall ran through Las Vegas and western Massachusetts. A product of the Academic Coaching Services Foundation in Las Vegas, he went on to study neuroscience at Amherst College. He has since committed seven figures back to the organization he credited with helping shape his academic path, with a $50,000 donation last November launching a college access scholarship in his name for low-income students. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas’s International Gaming Institute also publicly acknowledged a personal donation from Kiki supporting its students.
Outside academia, Kiki built a name for himself at the poker table. The two-time High Stakes Poker record-holder on PokerGO serves as CEO of MonkeyTilt and had already logged a headline-making year before his Cambridge appearance. Earlier in 2025, he issued a $500,000 poker challenge to Kylie Jenner and squared off against Binance founder CZ in a pushup contest.
A professional poker player who held onto his Harvard rejection email for nearly two decades turned the long-delayed correspondence into a viral moment, and then showed up on campus to prove the wait was worth it.
Sam Kiki, known in poker circles as “Señor Tilt,” posted an Instagram Reel earlier in the week that quickly gained traction online. In the video, he addressed the Harvard Undergraduate Poker Club before pulling out his phone to read aloud a message he had received on March 31, 2009.
“I am writing to inform you that the Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid cannot at this time make a final decision on your application for a place in next year’s entering class,” Kiki read from the screen. “However, because of your outstanding achievements and promise, the committee has voted to place your name on a waiting list.”
