Posts Tagged ‘Poker Players’
Poker Players - Joseph Hachem
Joseph Hachem was born on 3rd November, 1966. He is a professional poker player o Lebanese-Australian origin. He is best known for being the winner at the WSOP event in 2005.
Joe Hachem was born in Lebanon. However he shifted with his family to Australia in 1972. Initially he made a career as chiropractor but he soon gave it up as he was suffering from a rare blood disorder. Today Hachem is a married man and his wife’s name is Jeanie. They have four children. Hachem has one brother and his name is Tony.
Prior to the event in 2005 where he won the title, Hachem was placed at the tenth place in the No limit Hold’em World Series. He won $25,850 in that event. Then he won the WSOP main event outclassing about 5,618 players. He went on to win the prize money of $7,500,000. Hachem was not an internet qualifier unlike other players like Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer. Hence he had to pay the full buy in.
Joseph Hachem got a lot of praise after his 2005 WSOP win from WSOP commentator Norman Chad. Hachem then finished second at the WSOP event in 2006. Hachem finished 238th place in terms of money won by professional poker players in 2006. Hachem was the last champion left on the field, quite similar to what Greg Raymer had been a year ago. In December 2006, Hachem won $2,207,575 in prize money and also went on to win his first World Poker Tour title. Hachem also reached the finals of the World series of Poker circuit event. In his appearance at the Poker Superstars III event, Hachem failed to progress to the last 16 round.
Hachem along with Doyle Brunson, Carlos Mortensen, Scotty Nguyen and Dan Harrington are the only five people to win two main poker titles and those are the World Poker Tour title and the World Series of Poker main event. Hachem was the champion at the World Series of Poker Champions II event competing with great players like Jamie Gold, Greg Raymer and Huck Seed. In 2007, he won the Poker Stars APPT Tournament of Champions. The table included winners from all the previous APPT events and Team PokerStars members.
As of the year 2008, Hachem’s winnings in terms of money are $10,700,000. At present, he is ranked third after Jamie Gold and Daniel Negreanu in the live poker tournament. There is also going to be a documentary on him called “Pass the Sugar” which is going to be directed by Gil Cates.
In the year 2008, Hachem finished in the 11th place in the EPT Grand final in Monte Carlo. He won an amount of $159,943 in his final hand. Today Hachem is a spokesperson for the online room at PokerStars. He plays poker often online.
Hachem specially came into the limelight when he defeated about 5618 players to win the main event at the World Series Poker 2005. That was the major turning point in his life.
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August 14th, 2009 / No Comments » / by suicidalsam
Poker Players - Johnny Chan
Johnny Chan is a professional poker player of Chinese origin. He was born in China in 1957 but he currently stays in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In his early years, Johnny Chan moved with his family in 1962 to Hong Kong from Guangzhou. He then shifted to Phoenix, Arizona in 1968 and later on to Houston, Texas in 1973. His family started a restaurant business in Houston. Chan was almost going to continue in his family business but at the age of sixteen years he just visited a junket by chance in Las Vegas. At the age of 21 years, Chan dropped out of his university where he was doing his majors in hotel management. He then shifted to Las Vegas to become a full time professional gambler.
Johnny Chan got success early in poker than US players as the US players were not accustomed to playing opposite Asian players. He became famous in the late 1980s winning the WSOP event in 1987 and 1988. He also appeared in a video where he does a cameo appearance. He was about to win his third consecutive title but he landed in the second spot behind Phil Hellmuth. He is the last player in poker to win back to back WSOP events, a feat applauded by many poker players.
Another poker player called Jerry Buss who is also the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers team promised Chan an entry in the NBA championship ring if he could win 3 WSOP titles in a row. Chan always keeps an orange on the table as a good luck charm when he is playing. Seeing him, other players also started bringing fruits as a good luck charm. However Chan stuck to an orange because of its sweet smell and he didn’t like the smoke pouring out of the cigarettes from other players. Chan smoked in the past but he eventually gave up. He does not drink alcohol.
In the year 2005, Johnny Chan became the first player to win ten World Series Poker titles. He last defeated Phil Laak in a Texas hold’em event to win the tenth title. He is at present tied with another poker player called Doyle Brunson for the second place of having ten World Series bracelets and both of them are just one short of Phil Hellmuth’s tally of eleven. Chan was introduced in the Poker Hall of Fame in the year 2002. In 2008, Chan earned a total of $32,166 in the main event.
Johnny Chan also participated in the $400,000 Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament in 2005. he was placed in the second position just behind Gus Hansen. He finished with earnings of $3,200,000 in that tournament. Chan also competed in the Poker Superstars II tournament in the same year. He made it to the finals after defeating 22 of the best players. He won about $400,000 as prize money. In the Poker superstars III event, Chan reached till the semi finals and was defeated in three games by Todd Brunson.
July 17th, 2009 / 1 Comment » / by suicidalsam
Poker Players - Howard Lederer
Howard Lederer is a professional poker player who was born on October 30, 1964 in Concord, New Hampshire. He also has a sister who plays poker as well and his name is Annie Duke. His other brother, Katy Lederer is a poet and an author. Lederer’s father Richard was a writer and he taught literature at St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire. Lederer took a lot of interest in chess in his childhood. He moved to New York City and attended the Columbia University. New York City has a lot of chess clubs that Lederer used to frequent. It was at one of these chess clubs that Lederer discovered poker. He developed an interest for poker as well and he soon started playing it at the Mayfair Club. At the club, he got acquainted with other professional poker players like Dan Harrington and Erik Seidel.
Lederer got so engrossed in the game that he played continuously for 70-80 hours a week. 9 nights out of 10 he used to go home without a penny in his pocket. However he used to earn his nightly stake by doing errands for other players. He soon found out that playing all nights wasn’t helping him and so he lessened his playing at night and went off to sleep early. He realized this his concentration had increased manifold.
In 1994, Lederer shifted to Las Vegas in Nevada to pursue poker as a full time profession. Lederer’s friends call him “The Professor” because of his strong analytical skills while playing the game. Lederer has also made an instructional poker video called Secrets of No Limit Hold’em. He co hosts the show Poker Superstars for the Fox Broadcasting Company.
Lederer was always calm and focused in his game. He applied zen wisdom to his game and played it like a true professional. Lederer always helped his friends. For example, he criticized another player called Daniel Negreanu for making inappropriate comments about another player. Lederer is also one of the co founders and CEO of the company called Tiltware Inc.
The company has created Full Tilt Poker which is an online poker site. As of the year 2008, Lederer’s total earnings stand at $4,800.000. Lederer has won two World Series of Poker gold bracelets and two World Poker titles as well. Lederer decided to be a vegan as he was obese for most of the years of his life. Many of his friends called him Bubba because of his weight but when he lost weight they shortened the name to Bub.
Lederer concentrated on developing skills and in November 2002, he won his first WPT Championship in Foxwoods. In March, 2003, Lederer won his second WPT Championship carrying a price tag of $5,000. After just a month, he won the first of his three Bellagio titles. He won his second Bellagio at 2003 five star World Poker Classic. His third one came up just 13 days later at the Pot Limit Omaha event.
May 21st, 2009 / No Comments » / by suicidalsam
Poker Players - Gus Hansen
Gus Hansen is a professional poker player from Denmark. He was born on February 13, 1974 outside Copenhagen in Denmark. He currently lives in Monaco. Hansen has won a total of 3 World Poker Tour open titles and he has also won the Aussie Millions main event in 2007. He was also the winner at the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament.
Before turning to poker as a full time professional, Hansen used to play backgammon and he also had a liking for tennis. He as known as a sports enthusiast as he competed at the national level in many indoor and outdoor sports. He moved to New York in 2000 and tried to make a living by playing backgammon but he found out that the field was too small for his taste. He had become a professional gambler though as he used to place private bets on various athletic sports such as running.
Hansen made his debut in mainstream poker by taking part in the first season of the Poker World Tour. He made it to the final table in the Bellagio Casino as well as the Commerce Casino. He was a winner in both the events. In the second season he was the winner in the Bad Boys of Poker WPT event as well as the Caribbean Poker Adventure event.
Hansen’s strategy as watched by millions of people on television was simple. He played like a maniac, always putting pressure on the players and make them decide whether they were risking too much substantial amount on his bluffing. He was also a specialist at playing weak cards because his post-flop play was very good. He always maintained that No Limit Holdem is not about playing the game but it is more of playing the players. He had one habit as well while playing. He would sometimes turn his hand over and say “I have a Gus”, which meant he would going to turn 74 offsuit or try something else which was similar.
A good example was when he had taken part in the World Poker Tour in the Commerce Casino and he held T3 against a rival player called Andy Bloch. It was difficult for most poker players to know what would be Hansen’s next move or strategy. Today Gus Hansen has been a consistent poker player for several years.
In the beginning, Hansen started playing poker when he attended college in California in Santacruz. He is known for taking the game to the next level and he is one of the main man who plays the biggest cash poker tournaments and other larger buy in tournaments. However he does not play in many tournaments like other poker players do, but he has got a lot of recognition from the tournaments he has played. In the year 2004, he was one of the players who made it to the World Poker Tour Walk of Fame with James Garner and Doyle Branson.
April 21st, 2009 / 2 Comments » / by suicidalsam
Poker Players - Doyle Brunson
Doyle Brunson is a professional poker player. He was born on August 10, 1933 in USA. He played poker professionally for about 50 years. He is the first person to win the World Series of Poker consecutively two times. He has also featured in the Poker Hall of Fame. He is also a successful author, having written several internationally sold books on poker.
Brunson is also the first player to win $1 million in poker tournaments. He also holds the record of ten poker bracelets in his career with Johnny Chan. Only Phil Hellmuth is ahead of them at 11 bracelets. Brunson is one of the 4 players who have won the World Series of Poker many times. He won it in 1976 and 1977 to begin with. To top it all, Brunson is one of the five players who have won the WSOP Main Event as well as World Poker Title. He was also reported by Bluff Magazine in 2006 as the world’s most influential poker player.
To begin with, Brunson was born in Longworth in Texas. Brunson was soon running to other towns to become a promising athlete. He was also a team member in the Texas basketball team. He was more interested in basketball than running marathons, but he still managed to win one mile Texas Interscholastic Track Meet in 4 minutes and 43 seconds. He attended the Hardin Simmons University in Texas as it was close to his home.
The Lakers team was ready to take in Brunson but he was suffering from a nagging knee injury which ended his sports days. He was injured while lifting weights and he was in a cast for two years. He had to shift his career from athletics to education and he soon secured a master’s degree in administration studies.
While he was injured, Brunson started playing poker. He met his expenses from the winnings that he made from poker. After his graduation he took upon a job of a machines salesman. In office he was invited to play a seven card stud game and in just over 3 hours he won an equal amount of his whole month’s salary. Inspired by his win, he left his job and became a full time professional poker player.
Brunson started playing illegal games at the exchange Street in Texas. His friend called Dwayne and him started traveling to different parts around Texas to start playing poker professionally in bigger games. Many times Brunson had a gun pulled at his head as these games were illegally run by organized crime people. He had little legal recourse even when he was beaten and robbed.
Today, Brunson continues to play in the biggest poker game in the world and also play in the Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio casino. He won his ninth gold bracelet in 2003 and the next one in 2004. He also won the Legends of Poker World Cup Tour in 2004. As mentioned before, he is just one gold bracelet behind Phil Hellmuth.
Here are some of the pictures of Doyle Brunson on Flickr.
March 28th, 2009 / 2 Comments » / by suicidalsam
Poker Players - Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu was born in Ontario, Canada on July 26, 1974. He is a professional poker player and he has won four gold bracelets in World Series of Poker and two titles in World Poker Tour Championships.
Daniel’s parents moved from Romania to United States in 1967 looking for a fresh start of their lives. However they finally settled in Toronto instead of United States where his dad started work as an electrician. Daniel was the younger of the two children that the parents bore. 15 year old Daniel first nursed dreams of becoming a film star or at least a television personality. His parents knew that he was going to lead an unconventional lifestyle. However by the age of 16 years, Daniel was found playing cards and sports betting. Daniel also left school early and he started playing cards and casinos. He met his future partner Evelyn in a club who would also end up being a professional poker player.
After he had collected the money that he wanted, Daniel shifted to Las Vegas to start a new career of becoming a professional poker player. However he lost a lot of money in the beginning and he had to return to Toronto to rebuild his career. He had become bankrupt at that time.
However his career picked up again after he won two events at the World Poker Finals in Foxwoods. He earned $55,064 as prize money. He also won $164,460 at the Pot Hold’em event in the 1998 World Series of Poker tournament. He holds the title of being the youngest WSOP bracelet winner which was a record till the year 2004. Daniel soon became one of the most successful poker players ever in the following years. As mentioned before, he won two World Poker Events along with winning three World Series bracelets and making an appearance at 12 final tables. He was named the World Series Poker Player of the year in 2004 and 2005.
In fact, when the Wynn Las Vegas resort opened, he was invited to become a Poker Ambassador and play for any stake at the poker table. However he opted out of this offer on 2005 as he felt it was restricting his higher earnings. In December 2005, he opened his own online poker site called Full Contact Poker (Online Poker Cardroom). The site also includes various poker forums as well as Daniel Negreanu’s own blog.
In 2006, Daniel launched a competition where he would select a protégé whom he would train to become a world class poker player. He was also ready to pay an entry fee of $10,000 in buy in events for the protégé. In 2007, Daniel conducted another protégé competition and the winner at that time was Anthony Mark.
Till date, Daniel has been a regular player in the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas. He loves to try on new challenges and he is good not only at the poker table but also at the golf course.
February 21st, 2009 / No Comments » / by suicidalsam
Poker Players - Chris Moneymaker
Christopher Bryan Moneymaker was born on November 21, 1975 in Atlanta, USA. He is a professional poker player and he is popularly known for winning the main poker event in the year 2003 called World Series of Poker. Many aspiring poker players have taken inspiration for him. No wonder, there has been a boom in the professional poker world in the last few years.
To start with, Chris attended the Farragut High School in Tennessee to later earn master’s degree in accounting. He was also a member of the fraternity Pi Kappa Phi in his college years. Chris was still working as an accountant when he got a player entry in the 2003 WSOP tournament. He got entry due to a satellite tournament in an online poker card room. He impressed everyone right from day one in the tournament. Chris won the first $2.5 million which made him a star overnight. He won against a tough opponent called Farha in the tournament.
Chris has been continuously playing in the World Poker tournament and in the recent years, he finished second in the 2004 Shooting Stars event. His total earnings from that event were $200,000. After winning the WSOP event, Chris left his full time job to become a celebrity spokesman for a show called PokerStars. Chris traveled far and wide to start playing in big poker tournaments.
In the 2008 WCOOP tournament, Chris won $10,300 in the no Limit Holdem tournament. This tournament was a part of event 5 of the WCOOP series. He was placed in the sixth position and he ended up earning $139,000 from that tournament. Chris Moneymaker is a married and he has a wonderful daughter called Ashley. She is quite young and she was born just 3 months before Chris won the WSOP. Chris also has an autobiography to his name called - How an Amateur Poker Player Turned $40 into $2.5 Million at the World Series of Poker. The autobiography was released in March 2005. Chris has won over $2,800,000 as of 2008.
Chris did not get his last name because of the winnings that he made from tournaments. He had this surname right from the day he was born. This is because his ancestors used to make silver and gold coins and hence the name Moneymaker was adopted. People quite find it interesting when they read about how a one time account who made $40,000 a year could turn out to be one of the most successful and wealthy professional poker players of all time. He rose to the top to make about $2.5 million payday.
He used to play bridge with his grandmother and later on also played blackjack with his father. In fact, ignorance turned out to be bliss for him in the beginning when he just strolled into the Las Vegas Binion’s Horseshoe and tried his hand at poker. What happened afterwards is anybody’s guess. He always played as if he wanted to salvage his pride.
February 12th, 2009 / No Comments » / by suicidalsam
