Reid ‘shootaa’ Young, 24, known as LOLOLOLOLOL at the table, is one of the established top players at $5-10 NLHE. He has over $300K in profits from over a 300k hand sample. He is one of the most popular instructors at LeggoPoker, not for his fame or the high stakes he plays, but the meticulous and detailed forum explanations and well articulated videos he creates that have helped many members. He has recently embarked on writing a new poker book to share more of his perspective on how, not what, to think about the game.
Thuy Doan, 24, has a very interesting and inspiring poker story to share. She was born in Vietnam and moved to Virginia when she was 7. She lived there until the age of 23 when she packed up everything to move to the west coast and focus on live poker. She has been playing NLHE on and off for over four years; online the first three years and now live predominately. She is a regular blogger for PokerRoad where she shared her story of her battle with cancer, losing a leg and remaining positive in the face of adversity.
Daniel ‘Jungleman12’ Cates, 20, is one of the hottest NLHE players in the world. He started his poker career by playing $.25/.50 heads up cash games in 2008. By the end of 2008, he was playing $10/20 and had won almost $100,000. By 2009, he was playing $25/50. His poker career has rocketed to stardom this year as he has dominated the HU NL games on Full Tilt winning over two million dollars. He recently started making videos for CardRunners and is now stepping up to play the Durrrr 50k hands heads up challenge. All this while he is currently attending the University of Maryland in College Park, while living in Bowie, Maryland.
Laurence "Miss Tofu" Grondin, 23, hails from Montreal, Quebec. She represents the new breed of young aggressive poker players making an impact in the poker world. She has been playing for a few years, and turned pro in 2008. In 2009, she made her first big statement by winning $237,537 for taking 3rd place in a WSOP No Limit event. I sat down with Laurence during the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, to discuss her journey in poker.
Scotty Nguyen, 47, is a larger than life tournament poker player and character. He is a true Las Vegas poker grinder, having seen many highs and lows during his long career. Currently 5th on the all time money list with tournament winnings of more than $11 million, Scotty has had an incredible poker career and according to him there is still gas in the tank. He is the 1998 World Series of Poker main event champion, winner of the 2008 $50,000 WSOP HORSE tournament, nine WPT Final tables with one outright WPT win with many more accolades on this champion's resume. He has battled against going broke and back again, been there, seen it and survived to tell the tales. We sat down with Scotty to learn more...
Matt Matros, 33, is a respected poker pro based out of Brooklyn, New York. He has had a number of significant live tournament finishes, most notably placing third in the 2004 World Poker Tour Championship event for over $700,000, with total live tournament earnings of nearly $1.5 million. His main game of focus is Limit Holdem where he plays extensively online and live since 1999. That Limit experience paid of dividends at this year's World Series of Poker as Matt realized one of his major dreams and took down a WSOP bracelet in a Limit Holdem event #12 for $189,870. Just a few days later, he final tabled another WSOP Limit event! Matt graduated from Yale university with a mathematics degree and has considerable writing aspirations which prompted Poker Curious to pick his brain.
Yevgeniy Timoshenko, 21, has experienced tremendous online and live poker success from a very early age. Originally born in Ukraine, Kiev, but moved to the USA when he was 8, Yevgeniy has prospered playing tournaments online as Jovial Gent on PokerStars and bballer88 on Full Tilt. In 2009, he won the main event of the World Championship of Online Poker. He bested a 2,144-player field to win $1,715,200.00. The same night he also won the weekly Full Tilt Poker $1,000 No Limit Holdem event for an additional $75,000. Further to his online success, he has also won a staggering $3.2 million playing live tournaments. He has bested some of the toughest players in the most prestigious tournaments in the world, including the WPT Championship, APPT and Paddy Power Irish Open (side event). As recently as May 2010, he won the Pokerstars $45K GTD for over $20,000.
Joel 'Odonkor1' Nordkvist, 24, is the latest Swede to assert himself on the high stakes cash game stage. He broke onto the poker scene in 2008, placing 28th in the EPT NLHE Main Event in Barcelona. In 2009, he was nominated for "Best Online Poker Player" at the PokerStars' Scandinavian Poker Awards. He made news in April when soon after starting to play high stakes on Full Tilt, he won more than $850k in less than a week against many of the top online poker winners. He was born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden, but currently lives in Newport Beach, CA. He was recently signed to be a featured pro at Victory Poker.
Eric 'basebaldy' Baldwin, 27, had a breakout poker year in 2009. He was the CardPlayer Player of the Year while winning his first WSOP bracelet in the $1500 NLHE Event #34. He also finished third in the $10,000 PLHE event. Recently, he took second place in the 2010 WPT Championships at the Bellagio for over $1 million dollars, finishing behind David Williams. He has accumulated over $3.7 million in winnings during his short career and is a sponsored Ultimate Bet pro. He is from Wisconsin, but currently lives in Las Vegas.
Sara Jean Underwood, 26, is a model, actress and TV host who is now focusing heavily on poker. She was the 2007 Playboy Playmate of the Year after featuring as Playmate of the Month in 2006 as the Pac 10 girl from Oregon State. She has appeared in several movies and hosts various projects on G4 TV. She is now representing Victory Poker, and being trained by their high powered pro team to fast track her poker education. Originally from Scapoose, Oregon, she now splits time between LA and Las Vegas.
Jason 'mkind16' Laso, 22, has taken a different path in the poker world than some of the whiz kids we often read about. He dropped out of college to pursue his poker aspirations, only to reconsider and return to school after dealing with the ups and downs of the online poker grind. He has returned to playing a limited live tournament schedule within driving distance from his Manalapan, New Jersey home. He recently had his biggest live score chopping the Foxwoods Poker Classic Main Event NLHE Championship for $111k following up a 10th place finish in the Borgata $500k Deep Stack event. We thought it would be a good time to get a better sense of Jason's journey in poker so far.
Andrew 'good2cu' Robl, 23, was born and raised in a small town outside East Lansing, Michigan. He is now living his dream in Las Vegas. He has a nice condo overlooking the Las Vegas strip. He plays high stakes poker live and online. He has been featured on TV poker shows like Poker After Dark and High Stakes Poker. He is one of the poker pro team that is helping launch and promote Victory Poker. He is endorsing poker software products like PlayerGPS. His life is currently being featured in the documentary From Busto to Robusto: good2cu.
Antonio 'The Magician' Esfandiari, 31, needs no introduction to the poker world. He is one of the most entertaining, charming, and successful poker pros. He has won WSOP bracelets and WPT titles. He has appeared on just about every poker TV show available at one time or another. Antonio is the most visible pro on the new Victory Poker team that launched earlier this year and he gave us a few minutes to answer some fun questions.
Scott Clements, 28, is one of the best live tournament players in the world that many casual players haven't heard of yet. He has twice won bracelets at the WSOP, winning the $3k Omaha Hi-Lo in 2006 and the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event in 2007. He won the 2006 Canadian Open championship and in November 2007 he won the World Poker Tour's North American Poker Classic. Including his 15 cashes from the WSOP, he has total live tournament winnings that approach nearly $4 million. When not traveling for poker, he resides with his wife in Mount Vernon, Washington.
Ben 'boywonder' Eliass, 27, recently joined LeggoPoker as one of their featured video instructors. He was much sought after because of his large following on twoplustwo and his great results over the last three and a half years. He has maintained a 5 bb/100 lifetime rate that he is currently exceeding at the levels he plays now, $5-10 and $10-20 NLHE. He has profited over seven figures and in 2010 is already up over $140k in his cash games. He studied law in University and is currently studying theology. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden.
Ilari 'Ziigmund' Sahamies, 26, is one of the most famous high stakes pot-limit Omaha players in the world. Ilari made his mark in the high stakes world, initially, as a wildly aggressive player who loved to gamble, drink, and poke fun at his high stakes opponents. His introduction to poker came at the age of 15, when he participated in a home game at fellow Finnish poker pro Patrik Antonius' home after meeting at a local billiard hall where he was a champion. With his trademark cleanly shaven head, Ilari has become a fixture in the highest PLO games in the world since 2006. His game and life have matured over the years and he now has ownership stakes in coinflip.com and PowerPoker as well as being seen regularly on high stakes TV poker shows. When not traveling around the world for poker, he resides in Helsinki, Finland. In conjunction with the exclusive Poker Curious Ziigmund bounty freeroll on PowerPoker March 21st, Ilari took a few minutes to answer some of our questions.
David 'Gaucho2121' Paredes, 30, is a Harvard graduate, law school graduate, and has worked at a New York hedge fund. He also happens to be a darn good poker player. He has played online and live poker since 2004. Success in poker paid for his law school education and supplements his other high profile career ambitions. He recently reached his first TV final table in the inaugural NAPT Venetian main event. He finished in 5th for $184k when his aces were cracked by the chip leader's jacks all in pre-flop. He resides in Brookline, Massachusetts, with his long time girlfriend, who is in her medical school residency there. He is currently playing poker while exploring new opportunities in the financial fields.
Maria 'Maridu' Mayrinck, 30, is a well known PokerStars professional from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She has built up her roll and climbed the poker ladder over the past few years to become one of the most liked players on the circuit. In March 2009, she took 3rd in the Full Tilt Sunday Mulligan for $29k and just returned home from 7 months playing poker around the world. Having been featured on ESPN's coverage of the World Series of Poker multiple times she is now taking her game to new heights. She is a consummate professional and a wonderful ambassador for the game and you also quickly come to realize that poker is her passion and is in her blood.
Jordan 'Scarface_79' Smith, 28, has been playing professional poker for the past 7 years. In 2009, he won his first WSOP bracelet in Event #36 for $586k and then followed that up with a 10th place finish in the Main Event for another $896k. He has also posted great results online over the past few years, most notably winning the Full Tilt Sunday Mulligan, chopping the PokerStars Sunday Million and a 4th place finish in the WCOOP event #33 for another $84. He resides in College Station, Texas when he's not traveling for poker.
Christian Kruel, 29, is the top Brazilian all time online money list leader for poker with over $1 million in career tournament earnings. He has been playing extensively since a fateful 1999 trip to Las Vegas to compete in a backgammon tournament. He found himself drawn to the poker tables and by the end of the week he was hooked. Christian worked hard for two years, in the pre-poker boom era, to perfect his game without the resources available today. 2005 was a breakout year for him with three WPT live final tables under his belt. Combine that with his consistently strong online resume and it is easy to understand why he has become one of the best known and most respected players from Brazil over recent years. CK continues to dominate poker in 2010 having already performed well at the PCA Caribbean and winning multiple online tournaments! We sat down with CK recently to learn more about his poker and life success.
