Hailing from Los Angeles, California, Kelly Kim discovered poker while attending the University of California, San Diego. After briefly working in the marketing field, Kim realized the workforce wasn’t for him and he took up poker full-time in July 2003.
Since then, Kim has been a regular on the tournament circuit, especially on the west coast of the United States. In 2005, he banked his first big score, taking fourth in the $2000 Fourth Annual Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $28K. A year later, he took third in a $2425 No Limit Hold’em tournament at the L.A. Poker Classic, cashing for $62K; he also played the Main Event, grabbing $46K for 17th.
Despite his relative success, Kim didn’t hit it big until the 2008 World Series of Poker. After becoming one of the inaugural ‘November Nine’ members, he entered the Main Event Final Table as a significant short stack with 2,620,000 in chips, about 8,000,000 less than the next shortest stack. Prior to the final table, Kim outlined his situation: “It’d be different if I had 15 million chips – I know I’m a huge underdog and I know I need to get lucky. I’m a tremendous favorite to finish 9th, but the fact that I’m still alive is enough for me. I’m not going to move in on the first hand, I’m a very good short stack player.”
When play resumed, Kim managed to out last one player to cash in eighth place for $1.28 million.
Kim also has numerous other WSOP cashes, including 57th in a $1,000 NL Hold’em with Re-Buys event, 28th in a $2,500 NL Hold’em event, and 423rd in the 2009 Main Event for $27K. All told, Kim has over$1.3 million in live tournament earnings.
When he’s not traveling the world playing in tournaments, Kelly Kim plays online at Full Tilt Poker where he is a sponsored pro.
