Poker Stories

David Baker is one of the most recent players to add his name to the World Poker Tour Champions Cup, having just taken down the L.A. Poker Classic main event for $1,015,000. The 46-year-old originally started as a salesman after graduating from Auburn University, and ultimately gave up a six-figure job to pursue his poker dream when his regular home game became too lucrative to ignore. Although Ba...

Jeff Shulman worked in land acquisition in Seattle before his father Barry recruited him to join the family business in Las Vegas. Together, they grew Card Player Magazine into the industry-leading media company it is today. As a player, Shulman was just a rookie when he broke out on the poker tournament scene, making the final table of the 2000 World Series of Poker main event. The "whippers...

After a brief stint as a professional bowler, Jack McClelland spent the rest of his career working in poker. He started out at the bottom cleaning ash trays and running chips before moving up the ladder to dealer, shift supervisor, and eventually tournament director. McClelland spent more than 30 years as one of the most respected figures in the industry, running tournaments all over the world. Th...

Matt Savage got his start in the poker industry as a chip runner at Garden City Casino, and worked his way up the ranks to dealer at Bay 101, and eventually, tournament director. The San Jose-native saw a need in poker for a standardized set of rules, and with the help of Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, and Dave Lamb, formed the Tournament Directors Association. Savage was named tournament director for...

Eli Elezra has put together quite the list of poker accomplishments. The former businessman was one of the stars of the poker boom, enduring seven-figure swings by playing in some the biggest cash games in the world. He has also had quite a bit of success in live tournaments with more than $3.6 million in earnings. The 58-year-old won his World Poker Tour title back in 2004 at the Mirage Poker Sho...

Shannon Shorr wasn't even 21 when he found his first taste of success in the poker world. The University of Alabama student won a satellite to the Aussie Millions and finished fourth in the main event for nearly $200,000. Later that summer after turning 21, he chopped the Bellagio Cup main event. With nearly seven-figures in cashes, Shorr decided not to go back to school, at least for the time bei...

Mohsin Charania became just the sixth person, and is one of only eight total players, who have won poker's Triple Crown. To earn the honor, a player needs to win a World Series of Poker bracelet, a World Poker Tour title, and a European Poker Tour main event. The Chicago-native picked up his EPT title back in 2012, winning the Grand Finale for more than €1.3 million. He won the WPT Grand Prix de P...

Jamie Kerstetter has been a rising star in the poker world for the last few years, but her path to the profession was anything but typical. The New Jersey-native was a two-sport athlete at Rutgers University, and then earned her law degree from the University of Michigan. Her timing, however, couldn't have been worse. Kerstetter passed the bar exam and landed a job, but the recession caused layoff...

Ryan Laplante was barely in high school at the height of the poker boom, but even at that early age, he knew he wanted to be a professional player. The Brainerd, Minnesota-native was so dedicated to poker that he would walk two miles each way to his college campus so that he could play online after his laptop broke. After a rocky start that included some tilt issues, backing troubles, and the roug...

Kelly Minkin missed the poker boom completely, and has only been playing tournaments for the last five years, but she has already established herself as top competitor on the circuit. Minkin was twice the last woman standing in the World Series of Poker main event, taking 29th in 2015 and 50th last summer. She also has two World Poker Tour final table appearances, taking third in both the 2015 Luc...

Chance Kornuth was just one semester shy of graduating from college when he decided to plunge headfirst into life as a professional poker player. He earned his first major taste of success in 2010, when he won the $5,000 PLO event at the WSOP for his first bracelet and $508K. The Denver-native continued to take shots with his bankroll, and found success both live and online. In 2014, he won the Be...

Doyle Brunson is widely regarded as the most legendary card player in poker history with a career that spans more than six decades. After a work accident ended his dream of playing in the NBA, the Longworth, Texas-native turned to poker. After years on the road with "Amarillo" Slim and "Sailor" Roberts, playing in dangerous, illegal games often set up by members of organize cri...

Jared Jaffee has been grinding the tournament circuit for the better part of the last decade. The Staten Island, New York-native initially set out to be a lawyer, passing the bar exam and even scoring his first job, before his friends convinced him to quit. His real passion was for poker, and although he's seen the downside of variance more than a couple times in his career, he's never been afraid...

Dominik Nitsche is only 27 years old, but he is already considered a veteran in the poker world after traveling the tournament circuit for the last 10 years. The Minden, Germany-native picked up the game early, and had a six-figure bankroll while still in high school. When he was 18, he won a Latin American Poker Tour event for $381,000 to kickstart his career. Nitsche wandered all over the world,...

Bob Bright has two World Series of Poker Circuit titles, and a few WSOP final-table appearances, but he's best known in the poker world for the time he has spent battling it out at the highest-stakes cash games. Bright, who has been seen on poker shows such as Poker After Dark, is a regular in Ivey's Room at the Aria, spent years playing in Bobby's Room at Bellagio, and has even taken part in the...

Jay Farber is best known for finishing runner-up to Ryan Riess in the 2013 World Series of Poker main event, where he earned $5.2 million. Farber was a relative unknown in the poker world at the time, but had made a name for himself in Las Vegas as a nightclub promoter and VIP host, which led to some high-profile people on his rail including Ben Lamb, Shaun Deeb, and Dan Bilzerian. Now five years...

Steve Zolotow has been gambling for the better part of six decades, and that's only a small part of what has been an extraordinarily eclectic life. Born into a famous family of writers that hobnobbed with the Hollywood elite, Zolotow dropped out of the Ivy Leagues to pursue a life of gambling, drugs, women, and even an acting career. It was gambling that led Zolotow to the Mayfair Club, which star...

Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi is one of the most accomplished poker tournament players in history, with four World Series of Poker bracelets, and two World Poker Tour titles. The 37-year-old got his career started by winning the L.A. Poker Classic in 2005, and followed that up by taking down the Borgata Winter Poker Open in 2006, the same year he won the Card Player Player of the Year a...

Chris Moneymaker forever changed the poker world when his win in the 2003 World Series of Poker main event helped to spark a boom. The accountant from Tennessee with the prophetic last name bested Phil Ivey and Sam Farha on his way to a $2.5 million payday, and a lasting endorsement deal with PokerStars. Although he doesn't play much during the summer anymore, Moneymaker has still managed to rack...

Kristen Bicknell is only 31 years old, but has already accomplished quite a bit in the poker world. The St. Catherine's, Ontario native started with online cash games and earned Super Nova Elite status on PokerStars for three consecutive years before turning her attention to live tournaments. Bicknell has two World Series of Poker bracelets, having won the ladies event in 2013 for $173,922, and a...

Mike Leah gambled on a career in poker, giving up a cushy six-figure salary as a sales manager to try his luck on the felt. The gamble paid off, as the 43-year-old Canadian has been one of the more accomplished tournament grinders of the last decade, having racked up more than $10 million in combined live and online scores. In addition to winning to a World Series of Poker bracelet back in 2014, L...

Brandon Adams is a high-stakes cash game player who now resides in Miami, but in the last 18 months, the 39-year-old has done quite well on the high roller tournament circuit. Adams finished second in the 2017 Aussie Millions $25,000 event, third in the 2017 Hard Rock Poker Open $25,000 event, first in the $50,000 Poker Masters event and most recently, he won another $25,000 event at the Hard Rock...

Jeremy Ausmus went into the final table of the 2012 World Series of Poker main event as the shortest stack, but managed to navigate his way to fifth-place finish worth $2.15 million. The Colorado-native may have been a relative unknown to the home audience at the time, but he had already spent years establishing himself as a respected cash game pro in Las Vegas. In the time since, the husband and...

Brandon Shack-Harris was the breakout player of the 2014 World Series of Poker and finished runner-up in the Player of the Year standings only to three-time bracelet winner George Danzer. Shack-Harris won the $1,000 PLO event for $205,000, finished second in the $10,000 razz event for $182,000, took third in the $1,500 limit hold'em for another $78,000, and then he topped it all off by finishing r...

Sorel Mizzi was at one point, the no. 1 ranked online poker player in the world. After turning his attention to live tournament poker, Mizzi continued to thrive, scoring wins on the European Poker Tour, and at the Borgata Spring Poker Open, Festa al Lago, and Wynn Classic, as well as high roller events at the Grand Prix De Paris, WPT Vienna and the PartyPoker Premier League. Mizzi has also done ve...