Poker bankroll management, building and strategy – online poker guide

Gus Hansen broke in 2010?

Monday, February 7th, 2011 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro | No Comments

Gus Hansen was rumored broke in late 2010 after a reportedly miserable year on the online felt. In this article I will give you a recap of Gus Hansen’s poker performance in 2010 (based on highstakesDB records). I thinks it’s safe to say that Gus Hansen didn’t go broke in 2010. He did however lose so much that his poker bankroll must have suffered.

Gus Hansen’s live tournament results in 2010 include a 1st place finish in The WSOP Europe event in London as well as a 1st place finish in the winner-takes-it-all Poker Million tournament hosted by Full Tilt Poker. In total Gus Hansen won around 1.5 million $ in live tournaments in 2010. However it was his online swings at the nosebleed stakes on Full Tilt Poker, which took the headlines in 2010:

We recommend these poker bonus deals

Gus Hansen’s 2010 online poker performance:

• January: $+1.743.125

• February: $+81.361 ($+1.824.486)

• March: $-1.617.936 ($+206.550)

• April: $-374.822 ($-168.272)

• May: $+895.070 ($+726.798)

• June: No information – to few hands
  

• July: $-176.303 ($+550.495)

• August: $-2.856.898 ($-2.306.403)

• September: $+208.806 ($-2.097.597)

• October: $+184.226 ($-1.913.371)

• November: $+173.546 ($-1.739.825)

• December: $+31.979 ($-1.707.846)

We recommend these poker school and poker tools

As you can see if it hadn’t been for a catastrophically poor March and especially August, Gus Hansen would have been a huge winner in 2010. His almost 3 million $ August loss over around 43000 hands was the biggest monthly loss for any player in 2010. Gus Hansen’s main problem in 2010 was without a doubt his stubbornness to continue playing Pot Limit Omaha against players who have an edge on him – players like Tom Dwan durrrr and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond. In 2010 Gus Hansen lost a whopping 4 million $ (give or take a few $) on Pot Limit Omaha. In comparison he was at the top of the charts when in comes to fixed limit H.O.R.S.E where he totaled a profit of 2 million $.

In conclusion, the rumors of Gus Hansen going broke in 2010 were only rumors. Although losing almost 2 million $ on the online felt, he won 1.5 million $ in live tournaments and don’t forget Gus Hansen is also hugely successful in backgammon, which has most likely given him a decent profit for 2010.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro

How did Isildur1 build his poker bankroll?

Sunday, January 9th, 2011 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro | No Comments

Yesterday – the 8th of January on the Atlantis Cove hotel, Paradise Island, Bahamas – Viktor Blom, a 20 year old Swede from Rånäs, Stockholms län, was officially revealed as being the person behind online poker phenomenon Isildur1. The last couple of years most people following online poker have pointed towards Viktor Blom and Isildur1 being one and the same, however yesterday it became official. The move into the public limelight was prompted by Viktor’s signing as a Team PokerStars Pro in December 2010. In this article I will summarize how Isildur1 built his bankroll (and lost it again on several occasions) during the crazy roller coaster ride of 2009 and 2010.

We recommend these poker bonus deals

Isildur1′s poker bankroll development in 2009

• As the story goes a young Swedish player deposited 2000$ on the Ipoker network under the nick Blom90 around the 1st of January 2009. 3 weeks later he had turned the 2000$ into a staggering 1,5 million!! $ by playing heads up no limit tables. At this point Viktor Blom – aka Isildur1 – and the person behind the Ipoker account was only 18 years old.
• In September 2009, Isildur1 appeared for the first time on Full Tilt. At this point Viktor Blom had built his bankroll to a level where he felt ready to take on the poker elite.
• Isildur1 first took on Haseeb Qureshi at the $100/$200 stakes. In an epic 24 hour session Blom was up half a million $.
• A month later he battled it out against Patrik Antonius, Brian Townsend, and Cole South and lost a million $ in no time.
• In late October 2009 he won back 2 million $ from Brian Townsend, and Cole South and inspired by his success sat down simultaneously at 6 500$/1000$ tables waiting for action. He got it from Tom Dwan Durrrr and won a record breaking 5 million $ in a week. In the same period he also won 1,6 million $ from Patrik Antonius.
• The next pro to take on Isildur1 in November 2009 was Phil Ivey and he did a lot better than the previous opponents. While multi-tabling against other pros, Isildur1 lost 3,2 million $ to Phil Ivey in a week.
• Ivey’s success gave hope to the other pros and Antonius challenged Isildur1 in omaha, which proved to be a good plan. Antonius won 3 million $ from Isildur1 in a period of 24 hours. The biggest single day loss in online poker at the time. The next day however, Viktor Blom won back 2 million $.
• Finally on December 8th, Viktor Blom’s amazing roller coaster ride on Full Tilt poker came to an end during a 5 hour session against Brian Hastings. Isildur1 lost 4,2 million $!!!! Later it was revealed that Brian Hastings had collaborated with Brian Townsend and Cole South, exchanging hand histories against Isildur1 to get an edge. Obviously displeased to learn about this unfair play by Brian Hastings, Isuldur1 left Full Tilt poker for several months.
• Amazingly, Isildur1 was involved in all of the top 5 biggest online pots in 2009.

Isildur1′s poker bankroll development in 2010

• It took a while for Viktor Blom to get back on the horse after his nightmare session with Brian Hastings, but slowly during February and March 2010 he gained momentum and the wild million $ swings were back. First winning 2,3 million$  Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo, Durrrr, Ziigmund, and Brian Hastings only to lose 1,6 million $ again to Bonomo, Hastings, and OMGClayAiken.
• Viktor Blom returned to Full Tilt poker a couple of times during 2010 only to lose some medium size amounts (according to his own standards).
• Then in December 2010 Isildur1 was announced as a new pro at PokerStars and soon after his true identity was revealed.

We recommend these poker school and poker tools

Viktor Blom’s live tournament results

According to Bluffmagazine, Isildur’s biggest (and so far only) live tournament cash in from the 2010 WSOPE No Limit Hold’em Championship where he finished in 16th place taking down around 50000$. Until then, Viktor Blom’s most memorable live tournament moment (for others, not himself I guess) was when he was one of the chip leaders in the 2009 WSOPE No Limit Hold’em Championship and bluffed away his entire stack against Ian Munns (you can find a video of the hand on Youtube).

Here’s how the hand went down:

Blom raised to 3,000 pre-flop with K-2 of diamonds and Munns re raised to 9,000 with A-7. Blom called and the flop came A-A-3. Blom checked, Munns bet 9,000 and Blom made it 58,000. Munns put another 116,000 into the pot and Blom shoved all-in for 231,000 not being able to put Munns on an Ace or hopin he would fold a weak Ace. Munns ended up calling and Blom was history and calmly and almost silently left the table.

After his sign-up with Poker Stars, Viktor Blom will be attending a lot more live tournaments in the future and it will be exciting to follow his progress.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro

How did Vanessa Rousso build her poker bankroll?

Friday, December 17th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro | 2 Comments

Poker hottie and sex symbol Vanessa Rousso was born in New York on February 5th 1983 and has dual citizenship in the U.S. and France. She graduated with honors from Duke University and later studied law in Miami and wanted to be a securities litigator. It held up until she discovered poker. Since her start as a professional poker player, Vanessa Rousso has earned more than 2500000 dollars in live tournament winnings which at the young age of 27 ranks her among the top 5 all time female money winners. She is also a Team Pokerstars Pro playing online under the nick LadyMaverick. In this article I will try to sum up how Vanessa Rousso built her poker bankroll.

We recommend these poker bonus deals

LadyMaveric’s early gambling days

While attending Duke she proved herself to be quite the brainiac and she became interested in game theory, which is about how you relate complex mathematical decision strategies for everyday life. Although having dabbled with chess, her choice of game fell on poker due to its aspect of human psychology (as you know, the best hand doesn’t always win in poker). In 2003 she graduated from Duke with a major in economics and a minor in political science. She completed her college time in only 2 and a half years which was the fastest completion in the history of Duke. Vanessa started law school in 2004, but never finished after playing tournaments in her summer holiday. Having played poker since the age of 5 and playing online throughout college building a substantial poker bankroll, she realized that this was the career for her and she turned professional in 2005.

Vanessa Rousso’s major tournament wins

If I’ve forgotten soon please let me know.

We recommend these poker school and poker tools

Vanessa Rousso’s other achievements

When Vanessa is not playing poker, she finds time for a lot of hobbies. She describes herself as an adrenaline junkie, so she is often outdoors and skydive and bungee jumping. She has also provided strategy articles to several poker magazines.

Vanessa has also engaged herself politically in an attempt to overthrow the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act, which all American poker players hate and find very unfair.

In 2009 Vanessa Rousso started her own poker training camp in Florida tailored to poker tournament play. The Big Slick Bootcamp instantly became very popular (a 399$ entry fee sounds cheap if you get the chance to spend time with one of the hottest female poker players)

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro

How did Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier build his poker bankroll?

Friday, December 17th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro | No Comments

French poker pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier was born in France on the 8th of February, 1981. He currently resides in London. In his relatively short poker career he has become one of the most successful French poker player, doing well both in live tournaments – with a estimated total winnings of more than 6.1 million $ and on the online felt at PokerStars where he’s a member of team PokerStars. I’ve not been able to find out where the nick “ElkY” originated from. Do you know?

In this article I will give a recap of Elky’s path to the poker tables in addition to summarizing how Bertran Grospellier built his poker bankroll.

We recommend these poker bonus deals

The early gambling / gaming days of Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier:

“Elky” was already an online star player before he became a poker player. After he moved to Korea in 2001, ElkY was a regular participant in the World Cyber Games and the Korean Pro Gaming leagues thanks to his talent for computer strategy games. His specialty was Starcraft (great game by the way…Protos FTW), a game where he still ranks among the best. His major gaming results are quite impressive:

• 3rd – KBK Jeju (Seoul, South Korea)
• 2nd – World Cyber Games 2001 (Seoul, South Korea)
• 4th – World Cyber Games 2002 (Daejeon, South Korea)
• 4th – SKY 2 Ongamenet Starleague (Seoul, South Korea)
• 2nd – Ongamenet WarCraft Retail League (Seoul, South Korea) [WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos, all others StarCraft: Brood War]
• 1st – Euro Cyber Games 2003 (Paris, France)
• 5th – World Cyber Games 2003 (Seoul, South Korea)
  
• top 16 – World Cyber Games 2004 (San Francisco, California, U.S.A.)

Around 2004, “ElKy” was introduced to  the poker scene by a friend and instantly fell in love with the game. His background in professional gaming gave him an enormous advantage during long multitabling sessions where mouse dexterity, the abilty to see perfectly with the corner of your eye, fast reflexes and obviously quick thinking are key skills. Elky started playing at PokerStars at became the first player ever to achieve Supernova (100000 VPPs) and Supernova Elite (1000000 VPPs) status. What’s even more impressive is that he achieved Supernova status in 2 weeks and Super Nova Elite status in 4 and a half months. That’s insane! To illustrate his multitabling skills he also currently holds the Guinness Book record for most SNGs played in hour…62 in total!

Elky’s major live tournament results

Table taken from the PokerStars player profile page for Bertrand “ElKy” Grospellier.

We recommend these poker school and poker tools

Elky’s other interests

As fellow poker pros will attest to, there isn’t much spare time when you play as many live tournaments as “ElKy”. In the little spare time he has, he still enjoys to play online real-time strategy games. In addition Elky has also appeared on numerous TV shows including High Stakes Poker.

A fun anecdote from the 2009 WSOP

During the 2009 WSOP Sorel Mizzi and Elky had some serious sidebet action in an equivalent to the Olympic Games. Here’s the series of events:

Day 1:
Bench press
Bicep Curl
Shoulder Press
Triceps Pull Down
Chin-ups

Day 2:
Angled Leg Press
Leg Extension
Squats

Day 3:
Tennis (best out of 3 sets)

Day 4:
Skipping rope (most in a row without missing)
Arm wrestling  (Bedst ud af tre)

Day 5:
Kick Boxing (9 rounds)

Day 6:
Swimming (Who can stay longest in the center of the pool without touching the bottom)

Day 7:
Rowing (longest in 15 minutes)

Each side bet was worth 10000$ and as an extra bonus, the loser had to hand in 15% of his WSOP winnings (up to 300000$ as the maximum). If one person won more than 80% of the disciplines there was an additional 50000$ bonus to the winner. I wonder what the results were?

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro

How did Phil Hellmuth build his poker bankroll?

Friday, December 17th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro | No Comments

Did you ever wonder how Phil Hellmuth built his poker bankroll? In this article I will give you an overview of how Phil Hellmuth – aka The Poker Brat, The Madison Kid and the Joe McEnroe of Poker- has become one of the most famous poker pro players in the world along with a massive bankroll to his name. The nick “The Poker Brat” stems from Phil Hellmuth’s infamous tendency to blow up when he suffers a bad beat or doesn’t catch a break. The Poker Brat is also known for delivering some of the most memorable quotes in poker history:

• “Honey, honey, I was supposed to go broke on that hand: Honey. But they forgot one thing: I can dodge bullets, baby!“
• “This fricking donkey stuffs $15,000 in with king-jack. I mean … the guy can’t even spell poker.“
• “When I watch myself on TV, I am a bit compelling …”
• “What’s my name? You know what my name is? I forgot my name even. Who am I?… Am I Phil Hellmuth?“
• “If there weren’t luck involved, I would win every time.“
• “Poker is 100% skill and 50% luck.“

We recommend these poker bonus deals

Phil Hellmuth was born the 16th of July 1964 in Madison (hence the nick “The Madison Kid”) Wisconsin and currently resides in Palo Alto California with his wife Katherine (a child psychologist) and two sons Philip and Nicholas. Throughout his career, Phil Hellmuth has won more than 11 million $ in live tournament prize money. This puts him on a 4th place on the All Time Money list behind Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu and Jamie Gold.

The Poker Brat’s early gambling days

Growing up in a middle class home as the oldest of 5 siblings there was always someone to play games with and from a young age the competitive nature of Phil Hellmuth was developed. His father being an assistant dean and professor at the University of Wisconsin had an academic career envisioned for his oldest son and Phil also studied for some years at the University of Wisconsin. However it was the game of poker, which he learned while studying at university that quickly became The Poker Brat’s main passion and to his father’s disappointment Hellmuth dropped out of school to become a professional poker player. Later in his career his father came to terms with his son’s choice of life, especially after Phil Hellmuth bought him a brand new Mercedes after his 1989 WSOP main event win.

In his early gambling days, Phil Hellmuth built his poker bankroll playing professors, doctors and businessmen in high stakes local games. However, as every aspiring poker pro, Phil dreamt of making it big in Las Vegas. His first attempt ended in disaster and a busted bankroll and Phil returned to Madison to rebuild and develop his game. Eventually he was able to beat the low stakes games in Vegas and grind his way to a living. In 1989 he decided to pay 10000$ for an entry ticket into the WSOP main event despite this being way over his bankroll. He went on to win the event at the age of 24 – beating legend Johnny Chan heads up -  thus becoming the youngest winner of a WSOP main event at the time. The rest is history……

Phil Hellmuth’s major tournament wins

The WSOP is definitely Phil Hellmuth’s playing ground. He has won a record 11 WSOP bracelets along with a whopping 79 WSOP cashes and 41 final tables. In total, Phil Hellmuth has won over 6 million $ at the WSOP. He has never won on the WPT, but has collected more than 1 million $ in prize money. In 2005, The Poker Brat won the first National Heads Up Poker Championship beating players such as Huch Seed and Antonio Esfandiari before crushing legend Chris Ferguson in the final.

Below is an overview of Phil Hellmuth’s WSOP bracelet wins:

Table taken from Wikipedia (gotta love them!)

We recommend these poker school and poker tools

Other anecdotes and controversies regarding Phil Helmuth

• Phil Hellmuth is infamous for his blow ups when people suck out on him and admittedly hates when people get lucky (something I can totally relate to). If you go on Youtube and type in Phil Hellmuth you will find numerous examples.
• Phil Hellmuth endorses UltimateBet.com.
• Phil has written many articles for Cardplayer magazine and numerous books including “Play Poker like the Pros”, “Bad Beats and Lucky Draws” and “Poker Brat”.
• In 2008 Hellmuth launched an online store (www.pokerbrat.com) selling both brat and non-brat poker merchandise.
• Hellmuth is an active philanthropist, donating money to help developing villages in The World’s poorest countries.
• The Brat’s favorite movies are The American President and The Matrix and he like 80s and 90s rock and roll.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro

How did Patrik Antonius build his poker bankroll?

Friday, December 17th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro | No Comments

Finnish professional poker player Patrik Antonius – aka “the Brad Pitt of poker”, Luigi66369, CryMeRiver9, Finddagrind, I_knockout_U and try_hrdr_fish-  was born in Helsinki the 13th of December 1980. Since he started playing professional poker his poker bankroll has grown large enough to allow him to play in all the major live tournaments, the highest cash games on Full Tilt and live in Las vegas with his wife Maya and daughter Mila. In this post I will sum up how Patrik Antonius became one of the most feared online Heads Up players and built a massive poker bankroll in the process.

We recommend these poker bonus deals

The early gambling days of Patrik Antonius

It was never in the cards (cheesy pun I know) for Mr. Antonius to become a professional poker player. As a kid and teenager he excelled playing tennis but a back injury at the age of 15 meant he had to quit the game for 18 months to recover. During this time – being no stranger to poker since the age of 11- he regularly played poker live games at the local tennis club. Later Patrik Antonius finished a degree from the Helsinki Business college and was on track for his first match as a professional tennis player when he suffered another back injury, which ended his tennis career altogether. After pursuing careers as a male model, a tennis coach and even a door-to-door salesman, Patrick settled for the game he had played as a hobby since a kid and practiced at the local casino in Helsinki from the age of 18. in 2003, as a personal goal prior to attending college in the US, Antonius started a serious attempt to build a poker bankroll after depositing 200$ into an online poker room. In a few months the roll grew to $20,000. He moved to the United States of America to attend college and play poker. In the US he took a break from school and started playing 12 hours a day, 7 days a week and his bankroll grew to 80000$. During Antonius’ early poker pro days he was mentored by Marcel Lüske and later female pokerstar Jennifer Harman.

Patrick Antonius’ major tournament results

To date, The Brad Pitt of poker has accumulated more than 2.8 million $ in live tournament winnings. A lot of these winnings came from his massive tournament heater in 2005, where he among other tournaments won the EPT event in Baden bei Wien taking down close to €290000 and later that year finished 2nd in WPT 5 Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas for a whopping 1,04 million $. Antonius has yet to win a WSOP event but has made close to 800000$ in his appearances so far. His biggest WSOP cash came in a 2007 Pot Limit Omaha even where he took a third place and 311394$.

We recommend these poker school and poker tools

Other achievements and anecdotes

• Has wagered 200000$ in tennis game vs. fellow poker pro Gus Hansen. I don’t actually know if the game was ever played. Rumors have it that Patrick Antonius backed out of the bet due to his old back injury causing him problems.
• In 2008 Patrick Antonius became a member of the prestigious Team Full Tilt.
• Patrick regularly appears on the televised High stakes poker where he was involved in the biggest pot so far in the show against Sammy Farha (a pot where the Finn won a cool 749100$.
• Antonius has also won the largest online pot (at the time in November 2009) against the infamous Isildur1 worth close to 1.4 million $.
• In his spare time he likes to play golf.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro

How did Doyle Brunson build his poker bankroll?

Friday, December 17th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro | No Comments

Doyle Brunson is the undisputed king of poker and still going strong at the age of 75. In this article I will give an overview on how Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson built his poker bankroll. Doyle Brunson was born in Longworth, Fisher County, Texas on August 10th 1933 as one of 3 children. In his younger years Texas Dolly was a talented athlete and basketball player until an accident during a summer job broke his leg in two places and put an end to his athletic aspirations. Instead, Brunson focused on getting an education instead and received a bachelor’s degree in 1954 and a master’s degree in administrative education in 1955. As the story goes, Texas Dolly entered into a game of seven-card stud the first day of his job as a business salesman and earned more than a month’s wage. He immediately quit his job to pursue a career as a poker player and never looked back on his way to building a substantial poker bankroll. Brunson is known to have said : “I’m a gambler,”I’ll always be one. I couldn’t be anything else. So, my life will always be full of wins and losses. I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s exciting. There’s never been a dull moment in my life.”

We recommend these poker bonus deals

Doyle Brunson’s early gamling days

Back in the days when Brunson started to build his poker bankroll, poker was illegal and usually run by members of organized crime groups. On several occasions Doyle had guns drawn at him and he was also beaten and robbed. Gives the term “bad beat” a whole new perspective huh? Brunson first started playing the illegal games on Exchange Street in Fort Worth, Texas together with his mate Dwayne Hamilton. As Doyle Brunson’s poker bankroll grew the two man group teamed up with poker legends Amarillo Slim and Sailor Roberts. As the story usually goes, the group of Texas Rounders built a huge bankroll by the standards in those days, and them hit Las Vegas only to loose everything. The group was dissolved but Doyle Brunson decided to stay in Vegas….a legend was born.

Texas Dolly’s major tournament wins

Doyle Bruson’s poker bankroll has grown considerably from his live tournament winnings which exceed 5.9 million $. Brunson was the first player to reach 1 million $ in tournament winnings and through his career he has won 10 WSOP bracelets.

Table taken from Wikipedia

We recommend these poker school and poker tools

Doyle Brunson’s other achievements

• Doyle Brunson is an inductee of the Poker Hall of Fame
• He is a bestseller author with the 1978 book Super/system which by many is regarded as the bible of Texas Holdem. Super System is the top selling poker book of all times and still sells 14000 copies each month
• He has recently published Super System 2 (2004), a follow up on his first book.
• Texas Dolly is the author of several other poker books including Poker Wisdom of a Champion and My Fifty Most Memorable Hands
• Doyle Brunson is also a spokesperson and endorser of the online poker room DoylesRoom.

Other anecdotes from Brunson’s long poker career

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro

How did Phil Ivey build his poker bankroll?

Sunday, November 28th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro | No Comments

This article belongs to the Poker Pro series

Philip D. Ivey (also known as Phil Ivey or “The Tiger Woods of poker”) is an American poker superstar regarded as many of his peers to be the best all round poker player in the world. His numerous live tournament wins has placed him in 1st place on the all time money list of live tournament winnings with a whopping 13,8 million dollars.

Phil Ivey was born in Riverside, California on February 1st 1976 and his family moved to Roselle, New Jersey when he was three months old. In this article I will cover the basics of Phil Ivey’s amazing poker career as well as mention some of the tournaments he has played which helped him build his mammoth poker bankroll. Some people have estimated that Phil Ivey is currently worth around 40 million $ with around 30 million dollars belonging to his poker bankroll. Whether this is true or not is difficult to say; but a dude who can forget he has 750000 dollars in chips stashed away in a casino, can’t be short of money

We recommend these poker bonus deals

Phil Ivey’s early gambling days

The Tiger Woods of poked already knew from a very young age that he wanted to play poker for a living and living close to Atlantic City gave him ample opportunities to do so. His grandfather taught him how to play 5-card stud and tried to discourage him from poker by telling him about all the dangers of being a professional poker player. Obviously the warnings didn’t have an effect on young Ivey, who continued to rail every home game he could manage in order to practice finding player tells. Ivey could not wait until he turned 21 to play in the casinos of Atlantic City so he acquired a  fake ID at the age of 18 (you have to be 21 in the US to legally gamble) with the name Jerome Graham on it. This ID has resulted in another Phil Ivey nickname – No Home Jerome. The “No Home” part refers to Ivey always being the last one to leave the tables. In the beginning it was an uphil grind for Ivey, at the Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City, but he was determined to break even and eventually he started beating the tables and laying the foundation for his poker bankroll.

Ivey’s major live tournament wins

Phil Ivey has won 8 WSOP bracelets and has finished in the top 25 of the WSOP main event 4 times between 2002 and 2009. In 2009 he finished 7th and was unlucky to be knocked out by the later runner-up Darwin Moon. Ivey had AK vs. Moon’s AQ in an all in preflop hand. At the age of 33, No Home Jerome is the youngest player to win 8 bracelets and he is also the player in history who has accumulated his bracelets in the shortest period of time. In 2008 Phil Ivey won his first World Poker Tour event in L.A after having reached an impressive 7 final tables prior to his first place. Phil Ivey’s live tournament results have added an astronomical 13,8 million $ to his poker bankroll. Here’s a list of Ivey’s bankroll boosting WSOP live tournament wins (taken from Wikipedia….gotta love Wikipedia):

Phil Ivey and cash games

As well as live tournament play, Ivey also masters cash games both online and live. This is a rare thing to see as many tournament players bleed out their bankroll in cash games and Vice Versa. He is a regular at the Big Game at the Bellagio casino in Vegas and is regularly involved in the biggest online pots on Full Tilt poker; battling it out with the likes of Tom Dwan Durrrr. His favorite online game is PLO and in 2008 he made an estimated 6,5 million $ on Full Tilt poker where he also holds a share as one of their featured pros. One of Ivey’s most famous live cash game wins came in 2006 where a group of poker players dubbed the “The Corporation” took on Texas billionaire Andy Beal in a 50000$/100000$ blind game. Early that year Beal had taken a cool 10 million $ from “The Coorporation” but that was before he met Ivey. Over a period of three days, Ivey was up 16,6 million $ before Andy Beal quit the game and hasn’t played since.

We recommend these poker school and poker tools

Other interests and side bets

Besides tending to his ever increasing bankroll, Phil Ivey enjoys all kinds of gambling including very large amounts on sports (a discipline where he allegedly does not perform as well in as poker). He also likes video games and has recently started playing golf. Ivey regularly takes prop bets against his poker peers. Recently he bet Tom Dwan Durrrr 1 million $ that he could go an entire year without eating anything that could move. 3 weeks into the bet Ivey got so tempted over a piece of chicken lying in front of him that he called Dwan and canceled the bet. They agreed on a settlement of 150000$.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro

How did Daniel Negreanu build his poker bankroll?

Saturday, October 30th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro | No Comments

This article belongs to the Poker Pro series

The Canadian poker player Daniel Negreanu also know as “Kid Poker” is second to only Phil Ivey when it comes to all time career earnings at an amazing 12,836,012$. He belongs to the elite group of poker super stars who are often seen battling it out on the High Stakes poker TV show. Daniel Negreanu is known for his easy going yet outspoken nature that has led to more than one controversy during his career.

Negreanu was born the 26th of Juli 1974 in Toronto, Ontario into a family who originally immigrated from Romania. In this post I will attempt to cover the essentials of Negreanu’s poker career including the story of how he built his substantial poker bankroll.

We recommend these poker bonus deals

The Kid Poker’s early gambling days

At the age of 15 Daniel learned how to play poker and although at this time he was aiming for a professional snooker career he soon realized his talent for poker especially when it came to reading his opponent’s hands. Spending his time building his bankroll by hustling unsuspecting victims in pool halls as wells as playing cards, Daniel dropped out of college aged 21 and moved to Vegas aged 22 to make a living playing poker. His dream ended abruptly within the first year when Vegas consumed his entire bankroll. Determined to break through in Vegas, Negreanu traveled back to Toronto to rebuild his bankroll only to lose it all again. This cycle continued until 1998 where Daniel entered his first World Series of Poker Event, a $2,000 Pot Limit Hold ‘Em event and won it thus becoming the youngest bracelet holder at the time, rightfully earning him the nickname “Kid Poker”. The rest is history.

Negreanu’s major live tournament wins

WSOP bracelets:

• 1998 2000$ Pot Limit Hold’em : 169.460§
• 2003 2000$ S.H.O.E : 100.440$
• 2004 2000$ Limit Hold’em: 169.100$
• 2008 2000$ Limit Hold’em: 204.874$

Word poker tour wins:

• 2004 10300$ Borgata Poker Open: 1.1174.00$
• 2004 $15,000 Five Diamond World Poker Classic: 1.795.218$

Other large tournament wins:

• 2006 Jack Binion WSOP Tournament Circuit-Grand Tunica
  No-Limit Hold’em Championship: 755.525$
• 2008 B.C. Poker Championships: 371.910$
  
  

Negreanu and cash games

Cash games are not Negreanu’s strongest game and he openly admits to this. Actually, Daniel is one of the few pro poker players who is very open and talkative about his game. On the TV show High Stakes Poker he has a hard time beating online sharks such as Tom Dwan “durrrr”. And no one forgets the memorable 575000$ hand lost to Gus Hansen during the second season of High Stakes Poker with a full house sixes full of fives against Gus Hansen’s quad 5′s. However lately “The Kid Poker” has made a real effort on the 100-200$ 6max No Limit Hold’em games on PokerStars including an amazing $454.836 rush over 1.870 hands! Hopefully Negreanu will be able to make a lasting winning transition from tournament player to cash game player while maintaining his impressive tournament results.

We recommend these poker school and poker tools

Other interests and controversies

Negreanu is a golf enthusiast as well as a passionate NHL fan. In addition “The Kid Poker” runs his own blog and poker information site at Full Contact Poker. Full Contact Poker originally started as Negreanu’s own poker skin in 2005, however when Daniel became part of Team Pokerstars in June 2007 his Full Contact Poker skin was terminated and the webpage continued as Daniel’s personal blog where he regularly posts tales from his life as a professional poker player. In addition, Negreanu has appeared in numerous poker TV shows as well as written books and appeared in a short scene of X-MEN: Wolverine.

Daniel Negranu’s outspoken nature has resulted in several controversies. One of the most hyped is when he called Annie Duke a “F***ing C***” after a dispute whether it was reasonable or not that several men had entered the 2010 WSOP ladies event. As far as I know, no apologies have later been given by Negreanu, so I guess he meant what he said. Another widely debated controversy was centered around “The Kid Poker’s” commenting of the Black Entertainment Television (BET) network. In short, Negreanu pondered how it would go down in the media if a guy from Alabama made a White Entertainment Television network. Since this would obviously be frowned upon why was it then OK to make the BET. Upon these comments Daniel was accused from many fronts of being a racist which in my opinion was a rather unfair reaction to what was essentially a harmless comment.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro

How did Tom Dwan “durrrr” build his poker bankroll?

Sunday, October 17th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro | 4 Comments

This article belongs to the Poker Pro series

Thomas Dwan aka Tom Dwan aka Tom Dwan “durrrr” or simply “durrrr” (chosen as a nick to maximize his opponent’s tendency to tilt) as he’s known to the online poker scene is one of most popular young poker players around belonging to the group of poker stars including Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey and the rest of the pack. Durrrr plays hyper aggressively and is extremely skilled in reading his opponent’s hands. He will regularly fold second nuts if he thinks he’s beat and gladly call immense pots with only high cards if he thinks he’s ahead.

Thomas Dwan was born on July 30th 1986 in Edison New Jersey and in his short poker career he has managed to build his poker bankroll to a level where he is able to participate in the highest limit online games on Full Tilt poker and all the major live tournaments.

In the following article I will sum up how Tom Dwan durrrr built his poker bankroll and mention some of the major pots and challenges he has been involved in.

We recommend these poker bonus deals

Tom Dwan durrrr’s early gambling days

As a kid durrrr played all the classical American sports such as basketball and baseball on a recreational / hobby level. He also enjoyed playing various card games with his family. His passion for poker started one day at his house where he and some friends played a 5$ buyin No Limit Hold’em. Fascinated by the game they quickly started playing sit and goes.

Soon after, Dwan, aged 17, convinced his father to deposit 50$ on Paradise Poker and an online legend was born. After dropping to 15$ durrrr never looked back and within the first year he built his bankroll to 10000$ mainly from No Limit cash games.

Thomas Dwan enrolled in college at Boston University as an engineering major but dropped out during the first year to pursue a full time poker career (makes sense when you’re killing the 10$-20$ and 25$-50$ No limit hold’em cash games)

Throughout these early days, durrrr’s poker bankroll went through some major swings that were dealt with by grinding through lower limits.

In 2006, Tom Dwan durrrr’s poker bankroll was large enough to buy a house in  Fort Worth, Texas together with his long time friend David “Raptor” Benefield.

Tom Dwan durrrr’s bankroll swings

• Before the 2007 World Series of poker, durrrr’s bankroll dropped from 3 million $ to 1 million $ in 4 months
• In January 2009, Dwan lost more than 3.5 million $
• In September 2009, Dwan lost 900000$ in a single session playing only 1071 hands
• In a terrible first week of November 2009, durrrr lost 5 million $ to the poker phenomenon Isildur 1
• In 2010 Durrrr’s bankroll has already been through several million $ swings but overall the numbers are black so far.

Tom Dwan durrrr’s major pots

• The 12th of June 2008, durrrr won a 657070$ pot against Urindanger (real name Di Dang) on Full Tilt poker’s 500/1000NL games
• During the  4th season of Full Tilt Poker’s Million Dollar Cash Game, Tom Dwan Durrrr won the biggest pot in TV poker history taking a whopping 1.1 million against Phil Ivey.

We recommend these poker school and poker tools

Tom Dwan durrr’s biggest challenges

In January 2009 Tom proclaimed his million $ challenge in which he challenges any poker player except Phil Galford heads up at 4 tables over 50000 hands at the 200$/400$ or higher No Limit Texas Hold’em or Pot Limit Omaha. If durrrs wins he receives 500000$ in addition to his winnings and if he loses, his opponent receives 1,5 million $. So far Patrick Antonius and Daniel “jungleman12″ Cates have taken up the challenge, but neither match has been finished.

The game stats are as follows:

• Durrrr vs. jungleman12: -657774$ (7660 out of 50000 hands played over 6 sessions)
• Durrrr vs. Antonius: +2059719$ (39436 out of 50000 hands played over 64 sessions)

In the 2010 World series of poker, Tom Dwan allegedly made side bets of over 5 million $ at odds 3.25:1 that he would win a bracelet. He came close losing heads up to Simon Watt in WSOP’s event # 11, $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em. After the match Mike “The mouth” Matusow thanked Watt for saving numerous players millions of dollars.

It will be interesting to follow the development of Tom Dwan durrrr’s poker bankroll in the remainder of 2010.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro