Jerry Yang called himself a ‘true rookie’ before winning the 2007 World Series of Poker main event. A virtual unknown before the event, he equalled Jamie Gold’s record of eliminating 7 of the 8 other players at the final table in a very agressive performance, calling virtually every all in against him. After entering the […]
Category: Professional Poker Players
Find out more about some of the World’s top professional poker players
David Williams
David Williams started his card game domination as a youngster playing ‘Magic The Gathering’, a strategy card game that also involves tournament play. After being accepted to both Harvard and Princeton, Williams studied economics and math before giving online poker a try. David Williams began playing poker online in the Bodog Poker Room, where he […]
Robert Varkonyi – 2002 WSOP Main Event Champion
Robert was born in 1961 in New York. Both of his parents are Hungarian immigrants who fled their homeland in 1956 after a communist regime was instilled. After a daring escape, they met in New York and wed. Robert graduated from MIT with one degree in computer science and another in management. He spent 15 […]
Stu “The Kid” Ungar
Stu was born in New York City and raised on the city’s Lower East Side, an incredible gin rummy player. At age 10 in ’63, he won his first gin rummy tournament. At age 14, he was regularly playing and beating the best players in New York. At 15 he dropped out of school when […]
Dewey Tomko
Dewey grew up in Glassport, Pa., a hamlet 15 miles outside Pittsburgh. As a child he played pinochle with his parents, but not poker. Later he learned that one of his grandfathers had been a professional gambler. Around age 8, he began playing blackjack for bottles against other neighborhood kids, and as a teen he […]
Bill Smith
Bill was a great no-limit poker player, a dangerous player, and it seemed like he never worried about anything, including whether or not he had any money. He featured on 3 final tables at the WSOP Main Event, winning the World Championship in 1985 and coming 5th in both 1981 and 1986. If he hadn’t […]
Huck Seed
Huck Seed was a former engineering student at CalTech. He took a leave of absence in 1989, started playing poker, and never went back to college. It is said that he is a native of Montana. While imposing at 6’7″ tall, his quiet and private nature go far beyond the poker table. Stone cold silent […]
Greg Raymer – 2004 WSOP Main Event Winner
Greg ‘Fossilman’ Raymer shot to fame when he won the 2004 World Series of Poker and it’s $5 million first prize. He adopted the ‘Fossilman’ nickname due to the fossils he uses for card protectors while sitting at the poker table. He actually sold similar fossils to pad his bankroll in the early stages of […]
David Pham
David “The Dragon” Pham fled Vietnam for America at the age of 17 in a boat carrying 145 people (9 of whom died on the journey.) He is the cousin of Men “The Master” Nguyen. After Nguyen’s early success in professional poker, he opened up a cleaning business that David worked for. Like many of […]
Scotty Nguyen
In 1974, at the impressionable age of 14, Scotty Nguyen (pronounced ‘win’), his loved ones encouraged him to escape the poverty and hardship of his Vietnamese community. He took a few possessions and boarded a ship headed for the United States of America. The difficulties he experienced adjusting to a new country, culture, and lifestyle […]
Evelyn Ng
Evelyn Ng was born in Toronto, Canada in 1975 and is a former blackjack dealer and one time girlfriend of fellow Canadian Daniel Negreanu. Ng has quickly become one of the most recognizable female poker players in the world. Known for her aggressive playing style and model good looks, this 5’11 beauty gained first achieved […]
Carlos Mortensen – 2001 WSOP Main Event Champion
Carlos Mortenson made history in 2007 when he became the first player to win both a World Poker Tour Championship event and a World Series of Poker main event. Born in Ecuador, where his family had farms, he moved to Spain when he was 15 years old. Notably, poker wasn’t popular in Spain, and was […]
Chris Moneymaker
Chris Moneymaker is often referred to as the man that ignited the poker boom. As ‘Money800’ on PokerStars, he entered, and won, a $39 satellite to the 2003 World Series of Poker. As Chris Moneymaker, he turned that seat in a World Series of Poker Championship and $2.5 million, capturing the world’s attention and highlighting […]
Tom McEvoy – 1983 WSOP Main Event Champion
Tom started playing poker on the knee of his grandmother, when he was only five years old. She taught Tom and his brothers how to play, staked them to about $1 each to play on, and then proceeded to win it back. It was either get better or keep losing to grandma. They got better. […]
Mansour Matloubi
Mansour was born in wales, but now lives in London, not much information is available on him. He was quite active in tournament poker in the 1990s, culminating with his win in the 1990 WSOP Main event. He does not play as many tournaments in the United States as he used to, preferring to play […]
Phil “Unabomber” Laak
Phil was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1972 but was raised in Wellesley, Massachusetts. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Phil has had a variety of past jobs, including being a repo man. He legally stole cars and said it was a bit dangerous […]
Gentleman Jack Keller
Keller served in the United States Air Force prior to becoming a poker pro. He was an excellent player at all poker forms who loved to take risks. When Seven-Card Stud was popular Jack was know as one of the strongest stud players. And his low ball talent was described as “Murderous”. Jack played like […]
Berry Johnston – 1986 WSOP Main Event Winner
Berry won the 1986 WSOP Main Event, and placed 3rd and 5th in the1982 & 1990 respectively. He has made at least 26 final tables at the WSOP and has finished in the money at least 45 times. He has also cashed in the main event more times than any other player. He was inducted […]
Phil Hellmuth Jnr
Phil was born in Madison, Wisconsin, he started playing poker while a student at the University of Wisconsin. After three years at the University he dropped out to play poker full time. Phil found success quickly, becoming the youngest ever World Champion in 1989 at just 24. His 9 WSOP bracelets are behind only legends […]
Dan Harrington – 1995 WSOP Main Event Winner
Dan was born and raised in Boston, and graduated from Suffolk Law School in Boston. After graduating, Dan spent nearly 10 years working in Boston as a bankruptcy lawyer, but the work made him weary.- he felt stagnant and unfulfilled,.Harrington now runs Anchor Loans, where he loans money while at the same time investing in […]
