The poker world has lost another member of the community, this time one of its strongest online players and a person who has drawn the respect of the poker world. In an official announcement from his family on Thursday, poker player Chad ‘lilholdem954’ Batista was reported to have passed away. He was 35 years old.
“It is with the deepest sadness that we announce the sudden passing of our beloved son, nephew, cousin, brother and friend,” the family’s statement over Twitter read. “Chad died suddenly this beautiful Thursday afternoon with his family surrounding him.” According to unsubstantiated reports over social media, Batista was admitted to the ICU in a Las Vegas and never emerged from the hospital.
Batista was one of the original online superstars that made a living from the exploding world of internet poker. Playing mostly on PokerStars, Batista was formerly ranked the #1 online poker player in the world by PocketFives.com from 2007-08 and routinely won some of the biggest tournaments online. Although firm data doesn’t exist on his online history, it is estimated that Batista was able to win over $5 million in his online tournament career.
Batista was able to parlay that online success into live tournaments. Making his first documented tournament score on October 29, 2006, two days later he was able to take down his first official live tournament championship, the World Series of Poker Circuit stop at Caesars Indiana for his largest ever live tournament score of $262,002. The very next year, Batista would make his biggest mark during the summertime running of the WSOP in finishing fifth in a $1000 No Limit Hold’em tournament for a $129,064 payday. Although he had not earned a tournament cash since 2014, Batista earned just short of $1 million ($952,496) for his live career.
The unfortunate reality of the situation is that Batista was one of those people that was greatly affected by the aftermath of “Black Friday.” Since he was primarily an online player, Batista was forced out of the United States to continue his online poker career, eventually alighting in Mexico with his two dogs. Although he had his online game and some of the comforts of home in his pets, this was a change that was difficult to make for Batista.
According to an aunt, it never fully took hold for Batista. “After Black Friday, things weren’t quite the same,” his aunt, Louise Batista, who raised Batista after his mother died when he was 16, told Nick Sortal of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “He didn’t like live poker because it was too slow-paced, and he didn’t like the crowds.”
While Batista may not have been fond of crowds, many in the poker world were fond of him. One of his main competitors in the online game, Sorel Mizzi, tweeted, “RIP to Chad Batista. Undoubtedly one of the true OG’s of online poker (writer’s note: fitting as to Batista’s hip-hop style of dress and blinged grill).” “RIP Chad Batista. An online tournament legend,” tweeted Christian Harder. “Came from nothing to become one of the best of his time.” One of his longtime running mates, Adam ‘Roothlus’ Levy, added, “RIP LilHoldem. We came up together in South Florida. We were like the odd couple running the poker streets in 2005. Gonna miss him.”
Two other tweets were especially poignant. 2015 WSOP double bracelet winner Brian Hastings remarked over Twitter about Batista’s difficult upbringing and life, while tournament director Matt Savage remarked, “Chad Batista and I texted often about things that bothered him in poker. Always seemed to have a lot of pain but also a ton of passion!” We in the poker community should always remember something…although our pursuit at the tables are mostly a solitary one, the care and concern for our friends and fellow competitors should never be overlooked. Talking about the game of life is sometimes just as important as talking about the game of poker.
Poker News Daily wishes to pass along to the Batista family our sympathies and, according to Sortal, the family has asked that, instead of flowers, donations be made to help an Orlando boy who has cancer at Trevor’s Fight.
crazy, rip lilhodlem