Pro Players
The game of poker wasn’t always as glamorous as it is today. In fact, playing poker used to be dangerous. The early days involved traveling through states like Texas from game to game for those that hoped to make a living as a professional gambler. Players had to protect themselves at all times as the games could get a bit dangerous, at times resembling the Wild West. This was long before the days of giant tournaments across the globe being a normal thing. Video poker online was far from being invented yet.
Thomas “Amarillo Slim” Preston was one of the original trailblazers of the game. You are probably also familiar with Doyle Brunson, another of the original trailblazers. The men had been friends for decades, playing in many of the early games together. On Sunday April 29th, Brunson broke the news on his Twitter that Slim had passed away at the age of 83.
Slim was one of poker’s first celebrities and helped to bring the game to the public eye before poker on television was the norm. Slim…
Read MoreThere is absolutely no argument, the hottest player on the live tournament circuit right now is Erik Seidel. The 51-year-old is defying his slightly advanced years, picking up six figure sums in tournaments all around the world.To date in 2011 he has amassed winnings of $3,592,284, more than many of the top pros make in a year. The Hall of Famer added to his total just two days ago, taking first place in the LA Poker Classic High Roller event.
With three players remaining, Seidel, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, and Darren Elias split the remaining prize money. Erik actually picked up the smallest slice of the pie, but it was still enough to catapult him into 2nd in the All-Time money list. His $144,570 score toom him past Phil Ivey in the standings and leaves him just $168,895 behind 1st place Daniel Negreanu. To date, Seidel has lifetime life tournament winnings of $13,947,297.
For some time, Seidel was most famous for being beaten to the 1998 Main Event title by Johnny Chan. While that experience might have crushed lesser men, Seidel…
Read MoreFor a while, Peter Eastgate was the most talked about name in the poker world. After his victory at the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2008, the world was his oyster. At just 22, he had wrestled the title of ‘Youngest Ever Main Event Winner’ away from Phil Hellmuth, who had held the crown since 1989 when Eastgate was just 3 years old.
24 months later, Eastgate stunned the money poker sites community by announcing his retirement from the game. The Dane was nowhere to be seen at the 2010 WSOP and it seemed like the winner of the first ever November Nine was making good on his promise never to play again.
Except, it turns out, Eastgate had his fingers crossed. Eyebrows raised earlier in the week, when it was announced that Peter would be playing in the NBC National Heads-Up Championship. To help quell the conspiracy theories, Eastgate has posted on the PokerStars blog explaining the situation.
He bemoans the, “whirlwind that followed winning the WSOP,” during his time living in London. “I lost track…
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