Longtime poker pro Hasan Habib posted a deep run in the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event and finished in 14th for $500,000. A resident of Downey, California, Habib was born in Pakistan and is a former tennis champion. Habib took down a coveted WSOP bracelet in 2004 after winning a $1,500 Seven Card Stud High-Low Eight or Better event, wading through a quaint field of 213 players. His competition at the final table of that event included fellow bracelet winners Blair Rodman and “The First Lady of Poker” Linda Johnson.
Habib was the runner-up to Michael Sohayegh in a $2,500 Limit Omaha High-Low tournament at the 2000 WSOP for $80,000. The same year, he final tabled the Main Event, the prestigious $10,000 buy-in feature tournament, and took home a $326,000 consolation prize. Much of his success at the WSOP has come in non-Hold’em tournaments, as he has finished in the money in Razz, Stud, Omaha, and Triple Draw contests in the annual Las Vegas tournament series.
Habib has also dominated the World Poker Tour (WPT) circuit, finishing as the runner-up to Martin De Knijff in the Season 2 Championship event at the Bellagio and cashing for $1.4 million. Amazingly, Habib returned to the final table of the WPT Championship one year later, this time bowing out in third place for nearly $900,000. After a five-year hiatus from a WPT final table, Habib finished fourth in the Bay 101 Shooting Star bounty tournament for $234,000. Through the first eight seasons of the WPT, his total earnings approached $3 million.
Habib has single-handedly served as the flag bearer for poker in Pakistan and, according to the WPT, Habib won his first tennis championship at the tender age of 14. He attended the University of Redlands in California and played tennis while pursuing a business degree.
