Poker Stories

Mark Herm is a longtime professional poker player from Philadelphia who found the game in high school and has spent the last 15 years piling up results. Known as 'Dipthrong,' he has racked up more than $5 million online and was among the highest ranked players in the world for a time. Most recently, Herm became the first player to ever win a bracelet in the inaugural WSOP Online series in Pennsylvania.  Herm has also done well in live tournaments despite a limited schedule with nearly $2 million banked. He won two DeepStack Extravaganza events at Venetian and has four WSOP final tables on his resume. Herm also final tabled a $25,000 buy-in high roller at Aria and the EPT Prague main event. Although many players have warned against staking others, Herm has been quite successful with backing and at one point had a stable of 60 players.Highlights from this episode include winning a 'dusty' bracelet, being a 'social mutant,' discovering poker in school, proving mom wrong, being a bankroll nit, finding sobriety, s

Fedor Holz is just 28 years old but has already put together one of the most impressive tournament résumés in poker history. The German phenom seemingly came out of nowhere in 2015 to tear up the high roller circuit, but he had already reached the highest levels online before making the transition to live play, and in fact was at one point ranked no. 1 in the world.In 2014, he banked $1.3 million in the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) main event, and that was just the first of many seven-figure scores. He won the Five Diamond World Poker Classic high roller the next year, and followed it up with victories at WPT National Philippines, EPT Barcelona, and the World Series of Poker.His first bracelet win was particularly massive, taking down the $111,111 buy-in One Drop high roller for nearly $5 million. Two years later he finished runner-up to Justin Bonomo in the Big One For One Drop for another $6 million. He also finished second in the Triton Super High Roller Series, and the Super High Roller Bowl

Joe Stapleton got his start in the poker world at Card Player, working the WSOP while on hiatus from his job at Mad TV. The Albany, New York native then moved on to other projects, including writing and podcasting, and commentating work for a number of poker broadcasts and TV shows.  Over the years, Stapleton has become a jack-of-all-trades voice for PokerStars, hosting shows such as The Big Game and Shark Cage, reporting from online tournament series like the SCOOP and WCOOP, and working alongside James Hartigan for EPT Live broadcasts and the Poker In The Ears podcast. The 38-year-old was a sideline reporter for the WSOP for ESPN and PokerGO, and was also the host for Poker Night In America and Poker Night Live.In recent years, Stapleton has been touring as a stand up comedian, and even opened for fellow poker player and funnyman Norm Macdonald. He was also hired by legendary screenwriter Paul Schrader as a gambling and poker consultant for the upcoming movie The Card Counter. The film stars Oscar Isaac, Wi

Lex Veldhuis was a gamer from an early age, and found poker shortly after the boom thanks to his friends in the StarCraft community. He quickly shot up the ranks, and it wasn't long before he was traveling the world, playing in some of the biggest buy-in tournaments and cash games available. He was even more prolific online, where he achieved SuperNova Elite status three years in a row. His play caught the attention of PokerStars, which signed him to a sponsorship deal as a brand ambassador. In addition to final tabling the $40,000 buy-in 40th Anniversary event at the World Series of Poker, Veldhuis also won the Dutch Poker Open in his home country of the Netherlands, and has appeared on poker TV shows such as The Big Game and High Stakes Poker. In 2016, he began streaming his online play on Twitch, and it wasn't long before he had one of the most popular poker channels on the platform. In fact, last year he set the record for most viewers of a single broadcast.Highlights from this interview include dad wakeu

Kristy Arnett Moreno and Andrew Moreno met in college and simultaneously fell in love with each other and the game of poker. Together they made the move from Fort Wayne, Indiana to Las Vegas with the dream of making it in the poker world.  Kristy landed a job in poker media, and almost immediately made an impact, interviewing some of the best players in the world both on camera and in print for Card Player and PokerNews. After starting his career focusing on cash games, Andrew has since transitioned to tournaments. He's had numerous close calls in the past, including a final table in the Monster Stack at the World Series of Poker, and a 28th-place finish in the $10,000 buy-in WSOP main event. However, he recently broke through with a victory in the inaugural Wynn Millions main event for a massive $1.46 million score.Highlights from this interview include poker first dates, winning a wife in a tournament, the Vegas ultimatum, two days on a greyhound bus, shady business partners and a broken nose, going broke,

Martin Jacobson found poker as a teenager, but his initial aspirations were focused on becoming a chef. After serving a year in the Royal Swedish Navy feeding the crew of a battleship, the Stockholm-native continued his culinary career while playing poker on the side. After turning a satellite win into a third-place finish at the 2008 EPT Budapest main event for $247,668, Jacobson was off and running.  Jacobson continued to tear up the European circuit, finishing second at WPT Venice for $319,518, second at EPT Vilamoura for $378,706, fourth at EPT Berlin for $327,337, and second at EPT Deauville for another $762,185. He even started finding consistent success in high roller events, final tabling the $111,111 buy-in One Drop High Roller twice.  Although he was frustrated with the close calls, it all came together in 2014 when he took down the WSOP main event for the championship bracelet and the $10 million first-place prize. His $17 million in career tournament earnings is enough to make the top 40 on the al

Bernard Lee first learned the game from his father, and then later started playing more seriously while at Harvard University, but the Julliard-trained pianist spent years working as a marketing manager before he decided to make poker his focus and profession.  In 2005, Lee made his first trip to the World Series of Poker, and was featured in ESPN's coverage of the main event for his 13th-place finish, worth $400,000. In the years since, Lee has added another $2 million in cashes, including two WSOP Circuit rings, and three WSOP final tables in no-limit 2-7 lowball.The 51-year-old is also a poker author, having written for Card Player, the Boston Herald, Metrowest Daily News, and ESPN, where he was a host of the show The Inside Deal. His radio show and podcast, the Bernard Lee Poker Show, recently celebrated its 14th anniversary, and his latest book, Poker Satellite Success: Turn Affordable Buy-Ins Into Shots At Winning Millions, is now available on Amazon as well as D&B Publishing.Highlights from this ep

Patrik Antonius started playing online poker in 1999, and was almost immediately competing at the highest-stakes available. The Finnish pro then broke out on the tournament circuit in 2005, winning an EPT main event and finishing second in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $1.04 million. Although he has always preferred cash games to tournaments, the former tennis standout and model has still managed to rack up $12 million in live tournament earnings during his career, including the $3.1 million he banked for finishing runner-up at the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl China.  Antonius is perhaps best known for his success in nosebleed-stakes cash games, and holds a number of records. In 2009, he won the biggest recorded pot in online poker history, scooping $1.376 million in a hand of pot-limit Omaha against Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom. In fact, Antonius was involved in four of the top 10 hands ever, and also has the record on the TV shows Poker After Dark and High Stakes Poker. At the end of 2020, the 40-ye

Ali Imsirovic is just 26 years old, but has already established himself as a dominant force on the high roller circuit. The Bosnia-born, Washington-raised poker pro broke out in 2018 when he captured the purple jacket at the Poker Masters, and in the time since has gone on to rack up numerous final tables and wins totaling almost $11 million in cashes.  Last August, Imsirovic broke the record for the largest no-limit hold'em cash game pot in online poker history, winning a hand against Tan Xuan worth $974,631. He has also been one of the more active players since live tournaments resumed, cashing in eight of the 14 high rollers held at Aria so far in 2021, and winning four. As a result, he is now one of the front-runners for the Card Player Player of the Year title.Highlights from this interview include fleeing the war in Bosnia, how a basketball injury led to poker, skipping grades and going to college at 16, using his guitar money for a tournament buy-in, trading in a date for a win at the casino, getting r

Lee Markholt has been a professional poker player for the last three decades, competing in some of the biggest cash games around while racking up $4.4 million in live tournament earnings along the way. The Washington native had aspirations to continue the family business of bull riding, but a long string of injuries ultimately derailed his career. Fortunately for Markholt, he found his father's poker books and was a quick study.  Markholt cut his teeth in Washington limit games before switching his focus to pot-limit hold'em in the years before the poker boom. In 2005 he won the PPT main event at Bellagio, taking home $220,000 which bankrolled him for high-stakes cash games. He ultimately found himself playing in games as big as $200-$400 no-limit, while continuing travel the tournament circuit. In 2008, he won a WPT title at the World Poker Challenge in Reno for $493,815, and for many years held the record for most cashes on the World Poker Tour. In 2013, he narrowly missed out on a World Series of Poker bra

Benny Glaser didn't earn his first cash at the World Series of Poker until 2015, but the Southampton, England pro has been able to accomplish a lot in his limited time on the felt. The 31-year-old part-time musician has won three WSOP bracelets during his short career, which is enough to make him the UK's most decorated player at the annual summer series.Glaser's first title came in 2015 in the $1,500 2-7 Triple Draw event, where he earned $136,215. A year later, he went back to back in Omaha eight-or-better events, taking down the $1,500 buy-in for $244,103, and the $10,000 Championship buy-in for $407,194. In the years since, he's also made final tables at the €25,000 WSOP Europe Mixed Games Championship and the $50,000 WSOP Poker Players Championship, and finished runner-up in the $10,000 Stud eight-or-better Championship. The mixed-games specialist has also been very successful online, winning five SCOOP (Spring Championship of Online Poker) and three WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker) titles on P

Lon McEachern is a longtime sports commentator that is best known for being the "voice of poker," having worked as part of the broadcast team for ESPN's annual coverage of the World Series of Poker. Prior to that, he covered numerous other sports such as bowling, cycling, mixed-martial arts, skiing, fishing, billiards, and even Scrabble. McEachern won a Golden Mic Award during his time in radio, and was nominated for an Emmy for his play-by-play work on the X-Games. In addition to ESPN, he has also done work for the Outdoor Life Network, NBC, and Fox Sports.  McEachern first covered the main event in 2002 alongside Gabe Kaplan, and the next year formed his iconic partnership with Norman Chad as Chris Moneymaker won the tournament and helped spark the poker boom. Remarkably, he almost didn't take the gig. At the time, he had mostly moved on from the sports broadcasting world and had taken a day job as a mortgage banker. The duo's work over the last two decades has become such a fixture of televised poker that

Ronnie Bardah is fresh off of a career-best score of $566,135 after he chopped the $3,500 buy-in World Poker Tour Lucky Hearts Poker Open in late January. The 38-year-old poker pro from Brockton, Massachusetts now has nearly $2 million in career live tournament earnings. The limit hold'em standout won his World Series of Poker bracelet in the 2012 $2,500 six-handed limit hold'em event, earning $182,088. The next year, he finished third in the $5,000 limit hold'em event. Bardah also currently holds the record for the most consecutive WSOP main event cashes, with five. His deepest run was in 2010, when he finished 24th for $317,161.In 2019, Bardah competed on the 39th season of the CBS show Survivor: Island of the Idols. He was the fourth poker player to be cast on the American game show, joining Jean-Robert Bellande, Garrett Adelstein, and Anna Khait. Additionally, Ilari Sahamies competed on the Finnish version of the show, while Jackie Glazier was on the Australian broadcast.Highlights from this interview inc

Norman Chad has been a familiar sight on World Series of Poker broadcasts since 2003, half of the iconic commentary duo along with Lon McEachern that helped to spark the poker boom with ESPN's main event coverage. "This is beyond fairy tale, it's inconceivable," Chad exclaimed as Chris Moneymaker secured the title.In the years since, Chad has become a fan favorite, adding in catch phrases such as 'whamboozled' or 'squadoosh' while cracking jokes about his past failed marriages. His contributions to growing the game were recognized in 2020, when he and McEachern were jointly nominated for the Poker Hall of Fame.Outside of poker, Chad has worked as a sportswriter for The Washington Post and Sports Illustrated, and appeared on ESPN's Pardon The Interruption and as the host of Reel Classics. He also wrote the book Hold On, Honey, I'll Take You To The Hospital At Halftime (Confessions Of A TV Sports Junkie), and was credited on episodes for the TV shows Arliss and Coach.Highlights from this interview include being

Jonathan Van Fleet was one of original stars of the online poker boom, terrorizing opponents on the virtual tables under the name 'apestyles.' The Texas Tech graduate racked up millions in cashes and was one of the top-ranked MTT players, although his battles with addiction cost him his bankroll on more than a few occasions.  These days, however, the 39-year-old is once again on top of the online poker world. Van Fleet won the $5,000 buy-in partypoker Millions online in December of 2017 for more than $1 million. He has also done quite well in the $25,000 buy-in high roller events on GGPoker, cashing for several million along the way. According to PocketFives, he is now no. 4 on the online tournament all-time money list with $16.8 million behind just Sweden's Niklas Astedt, Hungary's Peter Traply, and the UK's Chris Moorman.  Highlights from this interview include online poker wake up calls, hot pink shoelaces, starting college in recovery, bluffing for beer, apologizing for sleeping, punting his bankroll to B

Michael Schwimer grew up a standout athlete in Fairfax, Virginia and in high school was a star on his baseball and basketball teams. The 6'8'', 240-pound guard led his team to a championship and was even named MVP over future NBA center Roy Hibbert, but ultimately decided to turn down scholarship offers from Coach Mike Krzyzewski at Duke and Coach Rick Pitino at Louisville in order to pitch for his hometown University of Virginia.Schwimer decided to finish his degree, and even interned at a hedge fund, before he was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies. He spent three years in the minor leagues before making his major league debut, and finished his career with a 3-2 record. Schwimer says he made more money in the poker games on team road trips than he did as a player during his time in the league.After retiring, Schwimer started Big League Advance, a company that invests in (or stakes) minor league baseball players in exchange for a percentage of their future earnings. His second company, Jambos, is now posit

Nathan Gamble was a child when he started playing cards, turning an Uno obsession into a modest poker bankroll before he was even a teenager. He continued to play throughout his time at Johnson and Wales University, and would take leave for poker while he was enlisted in the United States Army as a field artillery officer stationed in Korea. The Texan briefly considered a career flying helicopters, but ultimately decided to pursue poker instead.Gamble made a deep run in the 2016 WSOP main event, earning $42,285 for finishing in 176th place. A year later, he returned to the summer series and earned his first career gold bracelet, winning $223,339 for taking down the $1,500 pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better event. This summer, Gamble added a second bracelet, this time winning the $600 pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better event for another $89,424. He has 11 Omaha cashes overall at the WSOP.The 31-year-old is now lending his commentary skills to the Galfond Challenge, an ongoing heads-up PLO match between Phil Galfond

Gavin Griffin was one of the original young stars of the poker boom, becoming the then-youngest World Series of Poker bracelet winner in history at the age of 22 at the 2004 summer series. The Darien, Illinois native earned $270,420 for taking down the $3,000 pot-limit hold'em event. He busted Phil Hellmuth at the final table, which prompted the Poker Brat to utter the now infamous line of, "If there weren't luck involved, I guess I'd win every one."A few years later, Griffin made the trip to Monte Carlo for the EPT Grand Final Championship and took it down for $2,429,103. In 2008, he won the World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open for another $1,401,109. The three marquee tournament titles made him the first player ever to win poker's Triple Crown, a feat that has since been accomplished by only eight others. In 2012, he nearly added a second bracelet, finishing runner-up in the $1,500 Omaha eight-or-better event. The 39-year-old has more than $5 million in career tournament earnings.Highlights from this

Dan Smith has one of the greatest tournament poker resumes of all time, with $37 million in cashes during his time on the felt. Although he is only 31 years old, Smith has been playing cards for half of his life, having discovered the game as a child chess prodigy. The New Jersey native was already winning big online as a teenager, and by his junior year of high school he had a bankroll that would make many professionals jealous.  Although he had a bit of a slow start to his live tournament career, Smith began to rack up huge scores as he climbed his way to the top of the high roller circuit. He now has 22 tournament titles, along with nine cashes of seven-figures. Smith even cashed in two $1 million buy-in events, finishing third in both the 2018 Big One For One Drop and the 2019 Triton Super High Roller London. He also has a World Poker Tour title, winning the Five Diamond World Poker Classic in 2013. He currently sits in fifth place on poker's all-time money list behind just Bryn Kenney, Justin Bonomo, Dan

Mark Newhouse grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and found poker during a couple of unsuccessful stints in college. After a few $50 deposits online, he was able to run up a six-figure bankroll, winning $100,000 in consecutive months. He turned pro immediately after turning 21, and was quickly playing limit hold'em cash games against some of the top players in the world for stakes as high as $1,500-$3,000.Despite having a preference for cash games, Newhouse has dabbled in tournaments over the years, most notably winning a World Poker Tour title in 2006 at the Borgata Poker Open for $1.52 million. In 2013, he made the final table of the World Series of Poker main event, ultimately finishing in ninth place for $733,000. A year later, Newhouse once again made the final table, and once again had to deal with the agony of ninth place, settling for $730,000. The 35-year-old has $3.52 million in career tournament earnings.Highlights from this interview include three strikes and two shots at college, from $50 to