Notes

Why Winning a Poker Tournament WILL BE the Most Special Moment in Gambling.9 Great Poker Pros Who Will Be Remembered for the incorrect Reasons.The.Comparing Online Casino Sites for Web Gamblers
Of all of the thrills gamblers can experience, winning a poker tournament might just be the most exhilarating.

Just watching this old clip from the 1989 World Group of Poker (WSOP) Main Event still gives me goosebumps each time.

Pay attention to the 2 2:58 mark, right because the pivotal 6 of spades on the river cinches poker?s World Championship for a baby-faced Phil Hellmuth.

When the ?Poker Brat? sees he?s dodged the deck ? fading 13 outs to dethrone two-time defending champ Johnny Chan ? he thrusts his arms skyward in pure exultation.

Granted, winning the largest poker tournament of these all at 24 years young will have that effect, but that first-place feeling continues to be a thrill regardless of what stakes you play.

Phil Hellmuth Celebrating 1989 WSOP Win

Unlike other casino staples like blackjack and roulette that offer one return ? betting, sweating, and seeing the effect happens within the span of one minute ? winning a poker tournament takes a ton of time and effort.

Whether you?re grinding a nightly No Limit Texas Hold?em event at your local casino, a three-day bracelet tournament at the WSOP, and even only a quick 10-handed Sit and Go online, you?ll have to decipher hundreds as well as thousands of decisions.

Which cards to play prior to the flop. Just how much to wager with your opening raise. How to proceed if an opponent plays back with a three-bet constantly in place. Once you should keep chasing that flush or draw, or simply fold to call home and fight a later date.

These are all of the decision inflection points a tournament poker player encounters while sorting through just a single hand. Add up a few hours or several days of grueling play against opponents who would like only to bust you and add your chips with their stack, and the poker term ?grinding? becomes entirely appropriate.

That?s why navigating the minefield posed by 100+, 1,000+, as well as 10,000+ player fields and also laying claim to every last chip in play is this type of surreal feeling. Everybody began the journey with the same buy-in and the same starting chip stack, but somehow, you emerged from the pack to defeat all comers and collect the lion?s share of the prize pool.

Ok last one, I haven?t even mentioned the money, either.

When Hellmuth took down Chan to win the 1989 WSOP ? then the biggest tournament on the planet with regards to prize money ? the eventual 15-time gold bracelet winner earned $755,000 for his efforts.

Some 30 years later, Hellmuth has parlayed ?cashes? in live tournament play into $22,861,742 in career earnings, with his best score a fourth-place run for $2.64 million in a tournament that cost $1 million merely to play.

And for all that dough, Hellmuth is ?only? 19th on the Hendon Mob database?s all-time tournament earnings list, with leader Justin Bonomo doubling up at $45 million and counting.

Suffice it to state, capturing the crown in a poker tournament ? any poker tournament ? is an accomplishment coveted by players of each caliber.

Just ask these four professional poker players who tried their best to encapsulate what tournament victory really feels like ? even for elite talents who take action all the time.

The Pros Tell You What Winning a Tournament IS ACTUALLY Like
After bursting onto the poker scene through the ?boom? days of 2003 through 2006, Mike ?The Mouth? Matusow fell on crisis. A drug arrest and subsequent incarceration took him off the tournament circuit for a protracted spell, but he returned with a vengeance in 2013 at the 2013 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship.

Mike "The Mouth" Matusow At Heads-Up Poker Championship

That year, after carving by way of a stacked bracket featuring one-on-one duels, Matusow squared off against the one and only his ?frenemy? Hellmuth. With $750,000 at risk, not to mention bragging rights between your pals and occasional nemeses, Matusow finished up in the winner?s circle.

You can watch the complete Finals matchup, but here?s the undeniable money shot.


With Hellmuth already having raised all-in, Matusow held only 8-6 of diamonds for a flush draw on the turn. Hellmuth had the very best pair, but Matusow decided to go for the kill, telling his crazed supporters on the rail, ?I?m choosing the win!? as he committed the calling chips with authority.

You?ll need to watch to see exactly how the river card comes down, but let?s allow ?The Mouth? to do what he does best by telling you how his big win really felt:

?I hadn?t won one since 2008. I have only played about 40 since then, and these guys play about 40 weekly.

I?m on top of the world right now. You'll find nothing that feels much better than winning a tournament. Nothing.?

In a more recent example, high-stakes cash game pro Nick Schulman ? who is no slouch on the tournament felt either ? took home the title at the 2019 U.S. Poker Open?s $25,000 8-Game Mix Championship.

Nick Schulman Holding 2019 WSOP Gold Bracelet

After defeating 19 of the very most proficient poker players in the game today, adding $270,000 to his bankroll in the process, Schulman told PokerNews how sweet tournament victory tastes.

?It feels damn good.

There?s nothing beats winning a tournament, whatever the field size. It feels great, and obtaining a clear first is exciting.?

Tournament wins don?t need to come in the flesh to feel crazy good, either.

Veteran pro and Team PokerStars rep Lex Veldhuis took down $55,000 for winning the $1,000 buy-in Thursday Thrill last year. And even after winning countless tournaments both online and live, Veldhuis told the PokerStars Blog that having a Twitch live streaming audience readily available to offer support made the win especially gratifying.

?Winning a tournament is a crazy feeling.

Winning a tournament on Twitch feels as though becoming Olympic champion. There is so much support along the way, and people really sweat it hard.

Whenever there exists a bad situation, they give you support after. Whenever there is a lot of tension, people say they actually can?t watch.?

Finally, even with winning not one but two gold bracelets at the 2006 WSOP, pro, Jeff Madsen still felt just as passionate about tournaments greater than a decade later.

Jeff Madsen Wearing Two Gold Bracelets

Speaking to CardPlayer Magazine about his intention to never retire, Madsen alluded to the ever-present urge to win tournaments as his prime motivation:

?Tournaments are always exciting, since it?s an all-or-nothing situation.

It is possible to win a life-changing amount of cash, or lose it all on the initial hand. And, there?s also just something great about winning a tournament.

You can win big in a cash game, and then you lose everything back the very next day, and it?s enjoy it never happened. But in the event that you win a tournament, even when you eventually lose all of that money, they are able to?t take the title or the trophy away from you.?

Even the very best Players on earth Have Trouble Winning Consistently ? Or at All
It might seem natural to assume that poker?s elite talents have no difficulty playing their solution to a first-place finish. In the end, these are the overall game?s most skilled practitioners, professionals who put food on the table through their success in tournament play.

But as it works out, actually winning a tournament outright ? not settling for a runner-up finish or a prize money ?chop? at the conclusion ? is incredibly difficult. The truth of tournament poker, and all gambling games for example is that statistical variance can wreak havoc on short-term results.

Over the course of a year or perhaps a decade, no level of volume will do to balance out the effect of random variance.

That is true for the most very skilled players, too, although to a smaller degree.

Take six-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu because the perfect example.
Before ?Super High Roller? trend needs to tilt the all-time money list towards those players in the last few years, Negreanu was the reigning leader for a decade running. Even today, his nearly $42 million in tourney earnings makes ?Kid Poker? #2 on the all-time leaderboard behind Bonomo.

As you would suspect from such gaudy numbers, Negreanu is not any stranger to winning tournaments.

Daniel Negreanu Laughing

Or shall I say, he was no stranger?

Between the years of 1997 and 2013, Negreanu took first-place honors in an astounding 45 events. That list includes from $120 buy-in nightlies at the Commerce Casino to his six titles at the WSOP.

But because variance is inevitable for all of us, Negreanu hasn?t experienced the thrill of tournament victory whatsoever in almost six years. That?s right; his last win came way back in 2013 at the WSOP-Europe ?25,600 buy-in No Limit Hold?em (High Roller) event.

Naturally, Negreanu does have ten runner-up finishes to his credit through the drought, but as he would be the first to tell you, nothing lacking victory is acceptable.

In an interview with PokerCentral ? conducted shortly after Negreanu came agonizingly close to his seventh gold bracelet at the 2017 WSOP with a second-place finish ? Negreanu discussed his seemingly inexplicable winless streak of late:

?It?s been sort of crazy that I haven?t won one in Vegas in an exceedingly long time.

I was hoping by now to possess probably nine or ten bracelets, but at this stage in my career, I only have six.?

The recent spate of second-place runs suggests Negreanu should get off the proverbial schneid at some point very soon, but at nearly six years now, his winless streak is proof positive that variance may be the only sure part of tournament poker.

Despite most of his success on the WSOP stage ? where he leads the all-time race by a mile with 15 gold bracelets ? Hellmuth is experiencing similar drought in terms of World Poker Tour (WPT) titles.

Here?s the way the ?Poker Brat? has performed on the WPT circuit, widely considered probably the most prestigious of the year-long global tours.

Phil Hellmuth?s WPT Stats

Career Earnings = $1,568,116
Cashes = 17
Final Tables = 5
Titles = 0
You read that correctly. The poker world?s most decorated figure in terms of WSOP gold and glory is 0?fer on the WPT.

That career-long drought may be because of Hellmuth?s singular focus on the bracelet chase, but he?d undoubtedly let you know that five final tables tend to be more than enough opportunities to get over the hump.

After coming torturously close to ending the drought in 2017 when Hellmuth was the runner-up at the WPT Legends of Poker Main Event, he returned this past year to make two consecutive deep runs.

The 7th and 15th finishes in $10,000 buy-in WPT Main Events must have fueled his passion to finally scratch a Tour title off his bucket list, because for his 2019 poker goals, Hellmuth listed a set of victories.


Another successful pro who knows the sting of extended winless streaks is East Coast legend Will ?The Thrill? Failla. With over $5.6 million in live tournament earnings, including 18 wins out of 244 in the amount of money finishes, Failla is no stranger to success on the felt.

But he certainly felt like one back in 2016 when suffering through his second straight disaster of a WSOP summer. In 2015, after cashing only once while playing a complete 50-event schedule, Failla found himself with only a lone cash 60 events through the 2016 WSOP campaign.

But after notching a badly needed final table run and fifth-place finish in the $ 1,500 No Limit Hold?em Bounty tournament, good for $71,049, Failla was on cloud nine. That?s what he told CardPlayer Magazine within an interview entitled ?The Curse Has Been Lifted? that ran immediately after the final table run:

?You see, that?s a very important factor so crazy about tournament poker. You can go ice cold for two years.

I understand some guys who went 2.5 years without winning anything, despite grinding their asses off.

Then boom, you win a tournament, and you also forget about it. You knew it was there, nevertheless, you forgot about it thanks to one tournament.?

Will The Thrill Failla Winning Foxwoods World Poker Open Main Event

Asked about how exactly he finds a method to push through the invariable losing streaks every poker player must cope with, Failla told CardPlayer that the imagine winning a title provides all of the motivation he?ll ever need:

?I run right thru it, about three or four miles a day. And every day during that jog I tell myself, ?This may be the bracelet event. This could be the bracelet event.?

I am hoping and try, and hope and pray, and hope and try, and listen, I know a very important factor: It?s going to happen. I simply don?t know when. Hopefully, it?s going to be soon.

I keep grinding and churning, and I?m inside it.?

With dedication like this, it?s no wonder Failla found himself back at another WSOP final table nearly one year later to the day.

And even though that opportunity in the $1,500 No Limit Hold?em Monster Stack event ? which awarded more than $1 million to the eventual champion ? produced ?only? a ninth-place finish, Failla continues to be out there grinding in pursuit of his poker dreams to this day.

Winning the whole lot Is really a Tournament Player?s Lifeblood
On your final note, whether you?re a star pro or an aspiring grinder, the sheer mathematics of poker tournament play makes outright victory a necessity.

In a brutally honest article entitled ?Why You?ll Never EARN A LIVING Playing Live Poker Tournaments? published in 2014 by Deadspin, poker player and writer Darrell Plant explains in exacting detail just how difficult sustained success in tournaments really is.

Plant begins by using an outlier example by introducing Chris Moorman, the reigning king of online poker tournament earnings.

Chris Moorman Representing 888poker

As Plant tells the tale, Moorman?s online tourney tracking data showed a seven-year span consisting of more than 14,000 entries recorded. And over that timeframe, Moorman made the amount of money between 11-17% of the time, while generating a return on investment (ROI) percentage of 26.5%.

Plant goes on to posit that even if you were as good as Moorman ? which, sorry to say, none folks are ? you?d still have to put in nearly 25 % of a million dollars? worth of annual entries merely to create a decent living.

?To create $60K with a 25% ROI, you must play tournaments with a combined buy-in of $240,000. Nearly a quarter of a million dollars of buy-ins every year to make what is a little above average income in america.

If that appears like a lot of cash, it really is. It?s also a lot of poker playing.

$240,000 of tournament entries each year is $20,000 of tournament entries every month, or about $5,000 per week for 48 weeks of the year (with four weeks off for good behavior). $1,000 per day, five days a week, if you want a weekend.?

Plant continues on to sort through the all-time tournament earning database before crunching the numbers to reveal that only a scant 0.5% cross the precious profitability threshold over their career.

The upshot of most these numbers is plain as day, with Plant providing the ultimate commentary on precisely how important those top-heavy first-place payouts really are.

?Of the slightly significantly less than a third of the best players who make money, five out of six are only profitable because of a single, large cash.?

Knowing these stone-cold facts, those iconic shots of Hellmuth ? and every other major tournament winner ? thrusting the arms up and jumping for joy start to make a lot more sense.

One big win can make the difference between a winning and losing year, an individual peak serving to sustain players through the long valleys to come.

Ask any athlete who excels at tennis or golf about their most remarkable moments in life, and you also?ll likely hear the phrase ?when I won the tournament? thrown in along the way.

The tournament format, whether in the athletic arena or at the poker table, distills competition down to its purist form. It?s every player for themselves, and he or she who is able to outwit their opponents and survive every brush with elimination rightfully has a right to be crowned champion.The poker world has seen many great players through the entire years. These pros have earned their fame by winning huge tournaments and/or beating the best cash-game stakes.

Unfortunately, a few of these same pros have become better known for negative reasons.
They?ve done everything from cheating online players to failing woefully to repay debts over and over.

Nobody wants to reside in infamy when they are/were an extremely successful player. But the nine pros discussed below experienced their poker careers overshadowed by controversial exploits.

1 ? Scotty Nguyen
Scotty Nguyen was once one of the most beloved poker players in the overall game. His thick Vietnamese accent and iconic sayings like ?nut, nut? and ?baby? made him an instant star through the poker boom.

Scotty Nguyen Soundboard Sayings

Nguyen supported his infectious personality with a number of stellar poker results, including winning the 1998 WSOP Main Event ($1 million). But beneath the winning and boisterousness was a severe drinking problem that might be exposed at the 2008 WSOP.

Scotty made a deep run in the 2008 WSOP $50k Player?s Championship, which was intended to honor the late Chip Reese. Nguyen grabbed a huge final table lead and ran away with the event, earning a $1.99 million prize for his efforts.

However the ?Prince of Poker? was anything but through the final table, as he guzzled numerous alcoholic beverages and berated both players and cocktail waitresses.

Michael DeMichele drew most of Nguyen?s anger.
The young poker player celebrated after he won a specific pot, which launched Scotty into a profanity-laced tirade.

Nguyen also tried soft-playing Erick Lindgren at one point during three-handed play. But Lindgren bet back, which caused Nguyen to obtain angry and exclaim that he was trying to help him.

Scotty issued an apology following a tournament. He cited a number of excuses for his poor behavior, including from exhaustion to DeMichele celebrating a winning hand.

Nguyen later dropped the excuses and stopped blaming others for his shameful display. However, his reputation hasn't recovered out of this incident.

2 ? Chris Ferguson
Chris ?Jesus? Ferguson became probably the most iconic poker players during the boom years from 2003 to 2006. Jesus was easily recognizable thanks to his trademark cowboy hats and appearances on High Stakes Poker.

Chris Ferguson Appearing On High Stakes Poker

He also has plenty of poker accolades to his name, including winning the 2000 WSOP Main Event and capturing six gold bracelets overall.

For good measure, this guy may also cut fruit in two with a thrown playing card and contains completed the most insane bankroll challenges ever.

Ferguson is quite possibly the only player other than Annette Obrestad to run a bankroll up from $0 to $10,000.
He used freerolls to earn his initial bankroll and took these small winnings to $10k.

Jesus? success on the poker table allowed him to create a sizeable investment in Full Tilt Poker. He served on the board of directors and became one of the primary beneficiaries from Full Tilt?s rise to prominence.

However, Ferguson?s reputation came crashing down alongside Full Tilt following Black Friday (April 15, 2011). He was among four Full Tilt executives who have been indicted by the united states Department of Justice for money laundering and bank fraud.

Full Tilt Poker was forced from the US market and exposed for not having the ability to cover some $350 million in player deposits. Many wondered how the execs could pay themselves tens of millions of dollars while the company only had $60 million in assets left over.

Jesus proved he could walk on water after negotiating a sweet deal, whereby he forfeited a bank-account (unspecified amount) and another $2.35 million to avoid jail time.

However, he couldn?t win over the poker community like he could the courtrooms.

Ferguson remained a pariah along with other Full Tilt execs, including Howard Lederer and Ray Bitar. He finally surfaced in the poker world again, competing in the 2016 WSOP. He?s proven that he can still play after cashing an archive 17 times in the 2017 WSOP.

Up to now, Ferguson has managed to play in live tournaments and succeed without any major harassment. But portion of the poker community still views him in a negative light because of his heavy involvement with Full Tilt.

3 ? Phil Ivey
Phil Ivey ought to be remembered among the, or even the, greatest poker players ever. He?s won atlanta divorce attorneys way imaginable throughout his career.

Phil Ivey Waving At WSOP Table

Ivy has earned 10 WSOP bracelets, won numerous other tournaments, and beaten the best stakes in both live and online cash games. Given these accomplishments, it?s no wonder why he was previously known as the ?world?s greatest all-around poker player.?

Unfortunately, all he?s been known for lately is his various lawsuits.
It all started with Full Tilt Poker, which Ivy had a sponsorship deal with and an investment in.

He was receiving huge amount of money every year to represent the Full Tilt brand. The payouts apparently stopped coming after Black Friday, of which point he leveled case.

Ivey claimed that the motivation behind suing Full Tilt?s parent company, Tiltware, was to operate for the players who lost their funds. But most eventually found believe that it had been only self-serving litigation.

The truth is, the lawsuit did more harm than good considering that Full Tilt already had enough trouble repaying players. But the poker community largely overlooked this incident and instead focused their anger on Ferguson and other execs.

In 2014, Ivey launched another lawsuit against London?s Crockfords Club Casino. He beat them in punto banco (baccarat) to the tune of $12 million utilizing an advantage-play technique called edge sorting.

However, Crockfords refused to pay out on the grounds that they felt Ivey went beyond normal advantage play. His lawsuit was eventually trashed because the judge believed that the techniques he used bordered on cheating.

This case gave Atlantic City?s Borgata casino all of the confidence they had a need to level a case against Ivey. They sought $10.1 million in damages.

The poker pro earned $9.6 million against them through edge sorting and used a portion of this money to win an additional $500,000. The Borgata also won their case against Ivey, who was likely to repay the $10.1 million amount.

But he?s since been dragging his feet and claims he doesn?t have the funds. The Borgata, meanwhile, has permission from a judge to explore Ivy?s Nevada assets and potentially recoup what they?re owed.

In contrast to a few of the pros on this list, Ivy isn?t universally hated by other poker players. He may have brought a self-serving lawsuit against Full Tilt, but this isn?t enough to place him in the same category as, say, Russ Hamilton (discussed later).

He?s simply becoming better known for his court cases than what he?s done on the felt. Ivy has been the main topic of numerous mainstream news headlines within the past five years, which are centered on his edge sorting cases.

4 ? Stu Ungar
Some believe that Stu Ungar was the best poker player to ever grace the tables. Despite having a comparatively short career, he won three WSOP Main Event titles and beat a number of the world?s top cash-game players.

Stu Ungar Wearing Sunglasses

Ungar can be in the running for the best gambler ever. In the end, he was so excellent in Gin Rummy that the best pros wouldn?t even give him action.

This lack of action is what pushed him to take up poker. Of course, a lot of people would?ve taken a long time to get acclimated to a new game ? especially at the best levels.

However, not Ungar, who quickly made a name for himself by beating Billy Baxter out of $40,000 in a heads-up match. He would then continue to win back-to-back WSOP titles and become known as among the game?s best players.

Unfortunately, Ungar was plagued by drug problems throughout most of his poker career.
He started using cocaine on the advice of other pros so that he could stay awake longer during long sessions.

But ?A CHILD? overdid it and frequently went on coke binges. His poker career eventually flamed out by the first 1990s.

He made a comeback, though, by winning the 1997 WSOP Main Event. Ungar stayed up the entire night prior to the tournament and began to raise funds for the $10,000 buy-in.

Baxter backed him beneath the condition that they split any potential winnings. Ungar had difficulty staying awake on the first day, considering that he didn?t have any sleep.

However, a tongue-lashing from Baxter motivated him to make it through the initial day. Following a good night?s sleep, he dominated the next day and never look back en route to winning the $1 million prize.

After a $500,000 split with Baxter, he seemingly had a big enough bankroll to reignite his gambling career. But Ungar spent the majority of the money on drugs and losing sports bets.

He died just one year later in a seedy NEVADA motel room. He previously a heart attack that was due to his a long time of cocaine abuse.

Instead of being remembered for the great poker player and all-around gambler he was, Ungar instead serves as a cautionary tale on drugs and bad bankroll management.

5 ? Annie Duke
Annie Duke was one of the trailblazers for ladies in poker. Her brother, Howard Lederer, encouraged her to get into the game in the early 1990s.

Annie Duke At WSOP

She started playing in Montana, where she and her ex-husband lived at the time. Following a strong showing at the 1994 WSOP, Duke moved to Las Vegas to become full-time pro.

She?s since earned a number of notable cashes, including a $2 million score for winning the 2004 WSOP Tournament of Champions. Annie also won a gold bracelet the same summer in a WSOP $2,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Split event.

But few people talk about Duke?s wins or her $4.3 million in live tournament winnings nowadays.
Instead, they focus on her association with UB Poker and a failed run as the Epic Poker League (EPL) Commissioner.

Duke was among the primary players sponsored by UltimateBet (a.k.a. UB). This is significant when contemplating that UB had not been only involved in an enormous cheating scandal (see Hamilton) but would also go offline with players? money following Black Friday.

It?s unclear how much Duke knew concerning the operational side of UB. However the simple fact that she was featured in lots of of these promotions was enough to hurt her reputation.

Nevertheless, Duke survived her negative association with the scandalous poker site and would remain in the game. She eventually became the EPL commissioner in 2011.

The EPL was designed to be something of a specialist sports league of poker. Each tournament was televised on TV, and many of the same players were invited to compete at each event.

The inaugural EPL season was supposed to be highlighted by way of a $1 million freeroll at the end of the entire year. However, financial difficulties forced the league to close early and renege on the $1 million freeroll.

Pros were outraged and directed much of their anger at Duke. In the end, she was the commissioner and had a significant say in the league?s direction.

She?s since appeared on NBC?s The Apprentice and contains landed high-profile speaking engagements. But Duke certainly won?t be welcomed back to the poker world any time in the future.

6 ? Erick Lindgren
Erick ?E-Dog? Lindgren is another poker pro who experienced quite a bit of success through the boom years and beyond. He?s won over $10.5 million and has captured two WSOP bracelets and two World Poker Tour (WPT) titles.

Erick Lindgren Holding WSOP Gold Bracelet

Because of his highly successful tournament career, Lindgren became one of the main faces of Full Tilt Poker. He?s rumored to have been paid $3 million per month for his sponsorship deal at one point.

But hiding under the surface of his success and lucrative sponsorship deal, Lindgren had a significant sports gambling problem. E-Dog?s problem first surfaced in poker forums when players began bashing him for not repaying money he either borrowed or lost.

Fellow pros weren?t the only real ones he owed money to.
Lindgren was sued by Full Tilt Poker for failing woefully to repay $2 million that has been accidentally credited to his account.

He eventually arrived and admitted his gambling problem, promising to pay people back when he could. But after two bankruptcies and limited winnings within recent years, it?s doubtful that he?ll ever manage to honor all of his debts.

7 ? Chino Rheem
David ?Chino? Rheem has always been a somewhat controversial player. But through it all, he?s were able to carve out an effective poker career that includes $10.8 million in live tournament winnings.

Chino Rheem At World Poker Tour Champions Table

He?s still going strong, having won the 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event along with $1.57 million. Hopefully, he is able to use some of this money to pay back debts he owes to fellow players.

After all, Rheem is one of the most notorious pros when it comes to owing people money.
He has the social skills to secure backing from many players, but he doesn?t usually come through when it?s time and energy to settle debts.

Rheem has been accused of bilking players like Joseph Cheong, Will Molson, and Tom Dwan. He once secured a $111,111 stake from Guy Laliberte for the WSOP One Drop tournament, and then blow the amount of money on high-stakes baccarat.

Nobody doubts Chino?s poker talents, as he?s been able to win several big tournaments over his career. However, many attended to doubt him pertaining to repaying debts.

8 ? Russ Hamilton
It?s somewhat of a stretch to call Russ Hamilton a great poker player. However, he fits the criteria so well for somebody who will be remembered for the incorrect reasons.

Russ Hamilton Playing Poker

Hamilton began his poker career by playing in Detroit?s underground cash scene. He was pursuing an electrical engineering degree, but a professor convinced him that a poker career will be his best path to success.

The professor?s advice was good because Hamilton has already established a fairly successful career that?s seen him win the 1994 WSOP Main Event ($1 million). He was also a highly skilled blackjack player at one point.

Russ went from player to businessman when he committed to UB Poker.
He helped consult executives on how best to run the site and also convinced many prominent pros to play at UB.

One might think that he was just trying to make sure his investment proved well by recruiting these pros. But Hamilton had a more sinister plan in mind.

He had access to various ?superuser? accounts that allowed him to see other players? hole cards. Hamilton used this insider knowledge to create at the very least $20 million off other grinders.

It?s unknown just how many other UB execs/workers had access to the program. However the Kahnawake Gaming Commission?s report claims that Hamilton is solely responsible for the cheating.

He?s been the largest pariah in every of poker since. Hamilton is the only WSOP Main Event champion to possess his picture taken off the Rio?s wall of champions.

9 ? Prahlad Friedman
Prahlad Friedman is a fitting follow-up to Hamilton because he was the largest victim of the UB cheating scandal. He?s estimated to have lost around $3 million to Hamilton?s superuser accounts.

Prahlad Friedman And Phil Hellmuth World GROUP OF Poker

That said, Friedman should be remembered as a cheating victim. He should also be regarded as one of the greatest high-stakes online players ever.

Friedman was one of the earliest online poker stars, having won millions of dollars at the Prima Network and UB.
He routinely played against other high-stakes studs and has been called internet poker?s ?original end boss.?

But in newer years, he?s become more known for his lame rapping skills, a WSOP incident with Jeff Lisandro, and shilling UB poker.

Are you aware that rapping, he belted out several verses during ESPN?s airing of the 2006 WSOP. You can obtain an idea on what this went from the next lines: ?Poker is fun for everyone, except my opponents. They should?ve practiced avoidance.?


Concerning the WSOP incident, he claimed that Lisandro didn?t pay his ante. This sparked an enormous debate between your two, which prompted Lisandro to threaten, ?I?ll take your head off, buddy!?

The WSOP production later replayed the incident and showed that Lisandro did indeed pay his ante. A third player who wasn?t involved in the argument didn't put their ante in.

Again, Friedman was one of the biggest UB Poker victims. However, he made a shocking decision to represent their brand in 2009 2009 after they repaid a portion of his cheated funds.

They assured him that UB was under new management, which he preached to fellow players. However, UB duped Friedman once more and fully crushed his reputation if they went offline after Black Friday.

He now spends his time playing in live cash games round the LA area. He also raps with his girlfriend, Aida, as part of the group Pragress and Aida. However, it?s doubtful that his rap group can ever attain exactly the same success he previously in online poker through the early and mid-2000s.

Poker offers gamblers the easiest path towards fame and fortune, but being in the public eye has backfired for some players.

Scotty Nguyen was a feelgood story who immigrated from Vietnam to the US and eventually became a poker success. Unfortunately, he destroyed his image after playing the final table of the 2008 WSOP Player?s Championship in a drunken rage.

Chris Ferguson used his unique look and poker skills to become one of the most popular pros, but his reputation was permanently damaged when Full Tilt Poker couldn?t repay customers.

Phil Ivey hasn?t done anything overly shady in his career. However, he?s becoming more known for his lawsuits against casinos than anything he ever did in poker.

Stu Ungar could?ve possibly become the best player in history. He?s instead best known as a cautionary tale on avoiding drug use.

Annie Duke could have once been a poker idol to women, but she tarnished her reputation by shilling UB and owning a failed poker league.

Erick Lindgren once had a lucrative sponsorship deal and plenty of success on the felt. Unfortunately, he?s now known as the guy who is able to?t repay his debts.

Add Chino Rheem to this same category. Despite his continued poker success, Rheem continues to take heat for borrowing money he doesn?t pay back.

Russ Hamilton is a player who needs little introduction. After all, he?s known as the biggest poker cheat ever after bilking UB players out of over $20 million.

Prahlad Friedman might have been known as a victim first thanks to Hamilton, but he would later shill the same site that cheated him in what turned out to be an awful career move.

These players won?t function as last greats to systematically crush their reputations.
However, they?ll continually be among the most infamous to take action.Poker is an extremely popular game for myriad reasons. Celebrities are simply like the rest of us, so that it should come as no real surprise that a number of famous people enjoy playing the game, too.

Some celebrities just try it out when learning for a role, while some have even gone so far as to play in big-money poker tournaments. Several have made appearances at the planet Series of Poker, the World Poker Tour, and much more.

All five of the next celebrities have enjoyed quite a bit of success at the poker table. Some play for real money, while others seem to enjoy it for fun. Who are many of the most successful celebrity poker players?

Matt Damon
The famous actor, producer, and screenwriter has found himself attracted to poker throughout the years. Matt Damon starred in ?Rounders? in 1998 as a poker player known as Mike McDermott.

Damon has gone to play in a number of real poker tournaments over the years, including the World Group of Poker. His biggest tournament was in the 2009 2009 World Group of Poker FORK OUT for Africa Charity event.

Damon even won a WSOP bracelet this year 2010 in a $5,000 no-limit hold?em event. Damon?s success has brought some extra focus on poker throughout the years.

Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will always be linked, so it?s no surprise to see them pop-up together with this list. Affleck in addition has played a job of a poker player in 2013?s ?Runner Runner?. The Boston native in addition has showed up at a number of poker events through the years.

Affleck?s biggest known success at poker is in 2004 at the California State Poker Championship. He won the no-limit hold?em championship, where he walked away with an awesome $356,400.

Affleck has also shown up for multiple Ante Up for Africa tournaments and has even earned a spot on the planet Poker Tour.

Jennifer Tilly
The star of multiple movies in the ?Chucky? franchise and also known as the voice of Bonnie on ?Family Guy?, Jennifer Tilly is also known for her success at the poker table.

In 2022, Tilly was inducted into the Ladies in Poker Hall of Fame. The actress has amassed over $1 million in lifetime earnings at the poker table, so this is more than only a hobby for her.

Tilly found plenty of success back 2005 when she won the $1,000 ladies no-limit hold?em tournament during the World Series of Poker. She also won the ladies? invitational tournament on the planet Poker Tour later for the reason that year.

Tobey Maguire
Tobey Maguire could be Spider-Man by night, but he?s spent many each day at the poker table. Lots of people find out about Maguire?s knowledge of poker through the movie ?Molly?s Game?, which detailed the real-life underground poker game that Maguire and Molly Bloom used to perform for many Hollywood celebrities.

Maguire was later sued for his part in the underground game, and he was forced to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars within an eventual settlement.

Maguire in addition has played in multiple major World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker events. He won the Phil Hellmuth Invitational no-limit hold?em event back in 2004.

Maguire has made a substantial amount of money at the poker table, especially in the ?Molly?s Game? days. Maguire won around $225,000 in his major tournament appearances back the early 2000s.

Gabe Kaplan
Gabe Kaplan began as an actor, but has arguably gained more fame from his time in the poker industry. Kaplan starred in the 1970?s show ?Welcome Back, Kotter?, but subsequently considered playing professional poker.

He also found some fame as a Poker commentator for ?High Stakes Poker? on PokerGO. Like others on this list, Kaplan has also enjoyed quite a bit of success at the planet Series of Poker. He has finished top ten multiple times through the entire years and contains totaled about $2 million in winnings throughout his time at the poker table.

However, Kaplan never won a global Group of Poker bracelet or World Poker Tour title. Kaplan has since retired from poker and announcing.

Final Overview
While many celebrities play poker or end up at a casino at some point, not many are successful at it. Don't assume all celebrity makes a scene every time they play poker, but when they play in bigger events, it brings focus on the game.

Celebrities have helped to bring poker in to the mainstream. These celebrity poker players execute a great job both at playing and bringing focus on poker.

If you are looking to get into poker as well, there are plenty of online casinos offering poker games. Whether it's a live dealer game, video poker, or a different table game, many online casinos offer what you are looking for.
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