Player bios will go here
Known online as ‘Whooookidd’ on PokerStars and ‘Bussa Buss’ on Full Tilt Poker and UB.com, David Baker is an extremely talented poker player. Born and raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Baker picked up poker while attending Michigan State College. He made the typical $50 online deposit but, as most novice players do, he lost it… Read more »
Hailing from Calabasas, California, David Oppenheim began playing poker while he was at college. After becoming obsessed with the game, he turned it into a career and has been playing professionally for the last 15 years. Over that span, Oppenheim has developed into one of the most well known cash game players in the world… Read more »
Brooklyn born Dwyte Pilgrim may not have flashy titles or bracelets yet, but make no mistake about it, he’s a professional poker player. A master of finishing off mid-stakes buy-in tournaments, Pilgrim has carved out a nice living for himself over the past few years. In 2009, Pilgrim won a $500 World Series of Poker… Read more »
Known online as ‘basebaldy’, Eric Baldwin was an all-star Division-III baseball player who led his school to the 2005 NCAA National Championship before he was ever a poker player. Upon completing his degree, however, Baldwin realized that he didn’t want to get a job in his field (psychology), so he took up poker in hopes… Read more »
Born in Delray Beach, Florida on December 20, 1976, Michael Binger is a part-time poker player who now resides in Atherton, California. After doing his undergrad at North Carolina State University, Binger received a PhD in theoretical physics from Stanford University in 2006. A mere two months after his graduation, he finished third in the… Read more »
Born in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida in 1978, Robert Mizrachi was taught the game of poker by his mother at a very young age. The eldest of four boys, Robert introduced poker to his brothers and it remained a common thread between them as they grew up. While his younger sibling Michael ‘The Grinder’ is… Read more »
Originally from Wichita, Kansas, Kirk Morrison has had an interesting run as a professional poker player and gambler. At just 20 years of age, he moved to Las Vegas to play blackjack for a living. While in Sin City, Morrison met a group of young poker players – Daniel Negreanu, Layne Flack, and Allen Cunningham… Read more »
With an M.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University, it’s pretty safe to say that Rafe Furst is one smart dude. He began his career as an artificial intelligence researcher. After a few years in the workforce, he left in 1996 to form his first company, Pick’em Sports, which… Read more »
Over the past few years, nobody has been more involved in the poker radio scene than Scott Huff. He initially got started as a tournament reporter for CardPlayer, a job that had him on the road following the tournament circuit with BJ Nemeth. Eventually, CardPlayer turned to Huff for their radio show idea, The Circuit,… Read more »
Born and raised in Berkeley, California, Oliver ‘Ali’ Nejad was a happy-go-lucky kid who never failed to entertain his family and friends with his personality and sense of humor. It seemed inevitable that he was destined for T.V. , but it wasn’t until his high school friends urged him to audition for a local youth… Read more »
Matt Matros has been playing poker ever since his Dad taught him the game as a young child. By the time he was in his senior year of college at Yale University, he was devoting all his spare time to the game. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics, Matros has an exceptionally analytical understanding of… Read more »
Hailing from Williamsburg, Virginia, Cole South is a 22 year-old professional poker player best known for his online high-stakes cash game dominance. He began playing on Party Poker in 2005 under the name ‘CTS’. Since grinding micro-stakes with his initial $50 deposit, South has moved up to become one of the most feared nose-bleed stakes… Read more »
Unlike the scores of young players who have been dominating online play in recent years, Cliff ‘JohnnyBax’ Josephy started his poker career much later. After attending the University of Michigan, Josephy moved to Syosset, New York to start a family and work as a stock broker. It was there that he met Eric ‘sheets’ Haber… Read more »
Born on October 4, 1984 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Amanda Musumeci picked up poker while attending Kutztown University, where she studied Speech and Mass Communications. During school, she developed her game and was eventually able to grind small-stakes sit-and-gos and multi-table tournaments to pay the bills. Upon graduating, Amanda was invited by a friend to the… Read more »
Hailing from Leeds, Yorkshire, British poker player John Duthie originally worked in the television industry as both a director and producer of shows like Silent Witness and Clocking Off. Always an avid poker player, one tournament changed the course of his life forever. In 2000, Duthie won the Poker Million for $1.4 million, which made… Read more »
Born and raised in Jerusalem, Israel, Eli Elezra first learned to play cards with his friends. Upon graduating from high school he trained to become a member of Israel’s elite commando unit, the Golani Brigade. In his fourth year of service, he was injured in the Lebanon War and was confined to a hospital bed.… Read more »
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Maria Eduarda “Maridu” Mayrinck graduated from university with a sociology degree and quickly entered the media industry, working as a screenwriter for several sitcoms on the Brazilian network Globo TV. After becoming obsessed with poker, she began blogging assiduously about the game, and her blog “Need an Ace” quickly gained… Read more »
Born July 15, 1966, in Hamburg, Germany, Katja Thater didn’t start playing poker until she met her husband, poker professional John von Halle. While watching her husband play, she took over in a hand of Stud for him when he went to the bathroom and ended up winning it. She didn’t know how to play… Read more »
Hailing from Dessau, Germany, Sandra Naujoks studied History and German in university. She first worked as a teacher before leaving that post to become a graphic designer and pursue a modeling career. Eventually, she became obsessed with poker and, after learning the game, she dropped everything and hit the live tournament circuit immediately. In 2008,… Read more »
Known as ‘mastrblastr’ on Full Tilt Poker and ‘Gunning4you’ on PokerStars, Scott Seiver is a 23-year old American professional poker player. Normally a cash game special with a proficiency for deep heads-up play, Seiver has ventured onto the live tournament circuit with great success. In 2006, he got a taste of what a big event… Read more »
Born on May 20, 1979 in Los Angeles, California, Prahlad Friedman first picked up poker while attending the University of California, Berkeley. He developed his skills playing $15-$30 Limit Hold’em at The Oaks Club before moving on to higher No Limit stakes at the Lucky Chances casino. Online, Friedman plays as “Spirit Rock” on Full… Read more »
Known as “get crunk” on PokerStars and “DAT MOOSE” on Full Tilt Poker, Brett Richey is a poker player and member of hip-hop band Dream/Clone. Originally hailing from Pittsburgh, Richey attended Amherst College in Boston where he met fellow aspiring musician Dave Stasiak, whose background was classical and jazz. Richey found that his rap fit… Read more »
Born on July 2, 1955 in Vietnam, Chau Giang fled to the United States in the late 1970s. After landing in Florida, he moved to Colorado where he worked as a chef. It was during his stint in the Centennial State that he picked up poker, and soon after learning the game he moved to… Read more »
Known as Ashman103 online, Ashton Griffin is one of the most recognizable and fierce online cash game players around. He found the game playing small stakes with his mother and sister, but eventually began playing $60 Sit-and-Gos online. After some moderate success, Ashton took a few shots and found himself with only $200 remaining in… Read more »
Born in 1950, Bobby Baldwin was, at one point, the youngest World Series of Poker Main Event champion. After winning the 1978 WSOP for $210K, Baldwin’s mark was bested by Stu Ungar in 1980, Phil Hellmuth in 1989, Peter Eastgate in 2008, and Joe Cada in 2009. He has three other bracelets: $5K Seven-card Stud… Read more »
