David Anthony Williams (born June 9, 1980 in Arlington, Texas) is a professional poker and Magic: The Gathering player. He was a student at Princeton University and studied Economics at Southern Methodist University and attended the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, an early entrance college program.[1

His initial foray into Magic's Pro Tour came in the late 1990s. He had already won over $30,000 playing Magic when he made the cutoff for the final day of competition of the 2001 World Championships in Toronto. However, he was disqualified without prize for marked cards because three of his four Accumulated Knowledge cards were bent more than the other cards in his deck, making them easier to cut to when Williams cut his own deck after his opponent shuffled it. The tournament's judging staff determined that the bending was not accidental and that Williams had cheated based on two criteria:
Each time Williams cut his deck as part of pregame shuffling procedure, a copy of Accumulated Knowledge was on top.
The judges were able to consistently cut his deck to a copy of Accumulated Knowledge.
Williams admitted that the cards were marked but disputed the determination that he cheated by marking them intentionally. Williams was suspended by the DCI from sanctioned Magic: The Gathering tournaments for one year.[2]
During this suspension, Williams started to play high-stakes Texas hold 'em, especially on the Internet. He made a successful comeback after his suspension was finished, and won money at several more Magic events, though his focus was mainly on poker.

[edit] Poker
Williams was self taught to play no-limit Texas Hold'em tournaments. He was then mentored in poker by Marcel Lüske, with whom they both had a mutual friend in the Netherlands, Noah Boeken.
Williams's poker success was capped at the 2004 World Series of Poker. He won his buy-in through an online poker site and made it to the finals of the main event, ultimately finishing second to Greg Raymer, but still winning $3.5 million for the runner-up prize. His second-place finish is the best ever by an African American in a WSOP Main Event, besting Phil Ivey's 10th place finish a year earlier.
Four months later, he finished second at the Borgata Open World Poker Tour where he collected $573,800. David Williams became a member of Team Bodog after the 2004 World Series of Poker.
In March 2006, Williams made a second WPT final table, finishing 4th for $280,000. Two months later he made another WPT final table, again finishing 4th.
Williams also appeared on the game show King of Vegas, finishing in third place.
Williams now has his own vlog that offers an inside look at his personal and professional life. The webisodes air on the internet TV channel RawVegas.tv
Even though there is more money that can be made in professional poker than in professional Magic, Williams has said he will continue to play both games, although poker will take precedence. Like many who play both, he has asserted that the two are for different purposes: he plays Magic to have fun, and poker to make money.
Williams won his first WSOP bracelet in 2006 in the $1,500 Seven-card stud event when his K♠ 3♥ 4♣ J♦ (6♠ 4♠ J♥) defeated John Hoang's 4♣ 5♠ 9♦ 3♣ (A♦ 8♠ T♠).
His mother Shirley Williams often attends poker events in which he plays, and even competed in the 2006 WSOP main event, outlasting her son in the process. She also played in the $1,000 L.I.P.S. (Ladies only) W.S.O.P. event.[3] and she cashed in 465th place in the 2007 World Series of Poker main event.
As of 2008, his total live tournament winnings exceed $6,100,000.[4] $4,194,167 of his live winnings have come at the

Andrew Black (born 20 July 1965) is a poker player from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who presently resides in Dublin.
Black played cards with his mother when he was younger, and began playing more seriously in 1986, whilst he was studying for a law degree at Trinity College, Dublin. He was a member of a long running poker school in the Junior Common Room (The JCR), that previously had noted poker players Donnacha O'Dea and Padraig Parkinson as members. He also began playing in the Griffin Casino in Dublin, reportedly because of the free food and coffee.
He was knocked out of the 1997 World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event by the eventual winner, Stu Ungar. There were rumors that Ungar got lucky and defeated Black's AK while holding AQ. This was dispelled by Black himself on Full Tilt Poker, 12/10/06 who candidly affirmed that Ungar "just outplayed me" and that the AK vs. AQ story was nothing more than journalistic spice.
The following year a documentary titled Million Dollar Deal (narrated by John Hurt) was made of his visit to the same tournament. When he lost that too, he discarded all his possessions, travelled to England and lived in a semi-monastic Buddhist environment for 5 years.
Black successfully returned to poker in 2004, dominating in Irish tournaments and placing fifth in the 2005 WSOP main event. He led the final table of the main event at one stage holding over 1/3rd of the chips in play, however he was unable to maintain this lead and finished 5th, winning $1.75m.
In 2005 he appeared on the chatshow Heads Up with Richard Herring to discuss his faith and his poker career.
Since the 2005 WSOP main event, he has made a money finish on both the European Poker Tour and the World Poker Tour. In 2006 Black made the final table of the Tournament of Champions where he once again held a huge chip lead only to cripple his stack when he overplayed AK and ran into Daniel Negreanu holding pocket Kings. Black once again was eliminated in 5th place earning $100,000. Black enjoyed a spectacular start to 2007 placing 2nd for $100,000 in the Pot Limit Omaha event and 3rd in the No Limit Main Event for $750,000 at the Aussie Millions in Melbourne, Australia. At the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, Black once again enjoyed a deep run in a major event reaching the final table before exiting in 7th for $320,000. In 2007, Black won the Pot Limit Omaha side event at the Irish Open. He got €54,589 for the win. He defeated Michael Greco heads-up. At the 2007 WSOP, Black finished in the money in two Pot Limit Omaha events, finishing 7th and 11th respectively. At the 2007 WSOP Main Event, Black played day 1A. He was one of the early chip leaders, building his stack from 20,000 to over 80,000. Despite this, Black did not make it past day 1. He was eliminated when his 45 ran into AA on a 433 flop.
Going into 2008 Black was widely considered as the best pro not to win a major title, but lost that label when he beat Roland De Wolfe heads-ups to win Premier League Poker II and $250,000. His 2008 continued with a 16th place in the WPT World Poker classic for $105, 525 and three further cash finishes in the WSOP.
Black is an official pro at Full Tilt Poker.
As of 2008, his total live tournament winnings exceed $3,900,000.[1] His 12 cashes as the WSOP account for $2,064,265 of those winnings.[2]

Phillip J. Hellmuth, Jr. (born July 16, 1964) is an American professional poker player. He is best known for holding a record 11 World Series of Poker bracelets, for winning the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker [1] and for his temperamental, "poker brat" personality. He is also a member of the Poker Hall of Fame.[2]

World Series of Poker
In 1989, the 24-year-old Hellmuth became the youngest player to win the Main Event of the WSOP by defeating the two-time defending champion, Johnny Chan in heads up play. He held that distinction until 2008, when 22-year-old Peter Eastgate became the youngest Main Event champion. At the 2006 World Series of Poker, he captured his record 10th World Series of Poker bracelet in the $1,000 No Limit Hold'em with rebuys event.[3] At the time, this tied him with fellow poker legends Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan. However, unlike Brunson and Chan, all of his bracelets are in Texas hold'em.
At the 2007 World Series of Poker, Hellmuth won his record-breaking 11th bracelet in the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Event.[4] Hellmuth also holds the records for most WSOP cashes (68)[5] and most WSOP final tables (41), recently overtaking TJ Cloutier. At the Main Event of the 2008 World Series of Poker Hellmuth made a deep run finishing in 45th place out of a field of 6,844. He was the last former champion standing at the event when he was knocked out. Hellmuth took home $154,400. Hellmuth has won $6,019,630 at the WSOP and is ranked eighth on the WSOP All Time Money List.[6]
World Series of Poker bracelets[7]
Year
Tournament
Prize (US$)
1989
$10,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship
$755,000
1992
$5,000 Limit Hold'em
$168,000
1993
$1,500 No Limit Hold'em
$161,400
1993
$2,500 No Limit Hold'em
$173,000
1993
$5,000 Limit Hold'em
$138,000
1997
$3,000 Pot Limit Hold'em
$204,000
2001
$2,000 No Limit Hold'em
$316,550
2003
$2,500 Limit Hold'em
$171,400
2003
$3,000 No Limit Hold'em
$410,860
2006
$1,000 No Limit Hold'em with rebuys
$631,863
2007
$1,500 No Limit Hold'em
$637,254

World Poker Tour
Hellmuth has not won a World Poker Tour (WPT) tournament. He has cashed 10 times and made three final tables. He finished fourth in the $3,000 No Limit Hold'em WPT Event at the 3rd Annual 49'er Gold Rush Bonanza in 2002 and 3rd in the $10,000 No Limit Hold'em WPT Event at the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods in 2003 and at the 2008 WPT L.A. Poker Classic Hellmuth finished in sixth place earning $229,480 in a final table that included both Phil Ivey and Nam Le. He also played in two WPT Invitational Events, the World Poker Tour by The Book in 2004 and the WPT Bad Boys of Poker II in 2006 and finished 3rd both times.[8] To date, Hellmuth has won $691,109 in WPT tournaments.[9]

[edit] Other tournaments
Hellmuth is the season 3 champion of Late Night Poker.[10] In 2005, Hellmuth won the first National Heads-Up Poker Championship.[11] He defeated Men Nguyen, Paul Phillips, Huck Seed, Lyle Berman and Antonio Esfandiari on the way to the final against Chris Ferguson whom he defeated in two out of three games. While trying to repeat in 2006, he lost in the first round to Chip Reese.[12] In 2007, Hellmuth did not play due to the PartyPoker.com Premier League Poker, a British tournament in which he took part. He won four out of his six group matches and eventually finished third in the finals. Hellmuth took part in the 2008 National Heads-Up Poker Championship,[13] losing in the first round to Tom Dwan.
He makes regular appearances on episodes of Poker After Dark, both as a player and as a drop-in commentator. Hellmuth won his first Poker After Dark tournament in the first episode of the third season, winning a net $100,000. Hellmuth returned two weeks later and claimed his second Poker After Dark title, winning another net of $100,000.[8] He also appeared in the first and fourth seasons of GSN's cash game show, High Stakes Poker.[14] As of 2009, his total live tournament winnings exceed $10,700,000.[8] He is ranked third on the All Time Money List, behind Jamie Gold, and Daniel Negreanu. [15]

[edit] Poker-related activities
Hellmuth has made several instructional poker videos, including his Ultimate White To Black Belt Course and Phil Hellmuth's Million Dollar Poker Secrets. He has written many articles for Cardplayer magazine and several poker books including Play Poker like the Pros, Bad Beats and Lucky Draws, The Greatest Poker Hands ever Played, and Poker Brat, which contains autobiographical material as well as poker advice. In May 2004 Phil Hellmuth partnered with Oasys Mobile for the release of Texas Hold'em by Phil Hellmuth. At the time it was one of the 10 most popular multi-player mobile phone games available.[16] In spring 2006, Hellmuth replaced Phil Gordon as commentator on Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown.[17] Along with Annie Duke, Hellmuth is a poker coach on Fox Sports Network’s Best Damn Poker Show, which is sponsored by the poker site Ultimatebet.net.

Ferguson attended UCLA where he earned a Ph.D. in computer science (focusing on virtual network algorithms) in 1999 after five years as an undergraduate and 13 years as a graduate student.[2] His Ph.D. advisor was Leonard Kleinrock. Ferguson's parents have doctoral degrees in mathematics and his father, Thomas Ferguson, teaches game theory and theoretical probability at UCLA. His style is highly mathematical, using a strong knowledge of game theory and developing computer simulations to improve his understanding of the game.

Ferguson was playing poker before age 10. In college he honed his skill on IRC playing poker for play money in chat rooms. In 1994, he began playing in tournaments in California and in 1995, he entered his first World Series of Poker. Ferguson beat T. J. Cloutier at the main event of the 2000 WSOP to win the $1.5 million prize. In 2004, Ferguson helped launch the online poker site Full Tilt Poker. Ferguson finished runner-up to Phil Hellmuth in the 2005 National Heads-Up Poker Championship. He made the finals again in 2006, but again finished second, this time to Ted Forrest. In 2008 he made the finals for the third time, this time defeating Andy Bloch and winning the title. He has the most wins in the four-year period of the tournament, with an overall match record of 16-3
In 2008, Ferguson cashed for $677,905 at the WSOP,[3] a number that greatly exceeded his 2007 WSOP cash total of $84,562.[4] As of 2008, his total live tournament winnings exceed $7,300,000.[5] Of that figure, $4,005,558 is from his cashes at the WSOP.[6]

Ferguson is nicknamed "Jesus" because of his trademark long brown hair and beard.[13] He is a relatively quiet player who often adopts a similar motionless pose in situations where he could be "read". He adopted his trademark wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses consciously, trying to disguise the fact that he was a college student.[14]

World Series of Poker bracelets
Year
Tournament
Prize (US$)
2000
$2,500 Seven Card Stud
$151,000 [7]
2000
$10,000 No Limit Texas Hold 'em World Championship
$1,500,000 [8]
2001
$1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo Split Eight or Better
$164,735 [9]
2003
$2,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Split Eight or Better
$123,680 [10]
2003
$2,000 1/2 Limit Hold'em - 1/2 Seven Card Stud
$66,220 [11]

PHIL IVEY THE MAN

Ivey was born in Riverside, California and moved with his family across the country to Roselle, New Jersey as a three-month old.[2] He crafted his game playing skills amongst his co-workers at a New Brunswick, New Jersey telemarketing firm in the late 1990s. One of his nicknames, "No Home Jerome", stems from the ID card he secured to practice in Atlantic City in his teenage years.[3] His other well-known nickname is 'the Tiger Woods of Poker'.[4][5][6][7]

Despite now focusing more on cash games than tournaments, his tournament accomplishments include winning three bracelets at the 2002 World Series of Poker, tying Phil Hellmuth Jr, Ted Forrest and Puggy Pearson for the most wins in a single year.[8] Ivey also has bracelets in Pot Limit Omaha from 2000 and 2005. In 2000, he was the first person to defeat Amarillo Slim heads-up at a WSOP final table.[9] In addition to his five World Series bracelets, Ivey has had great success in the WSOP Main Event. He placed in the top 25 three times from 2002 to 2005, with the fields growing substantially each year. Ivey finished 23rd in 2002, 10th in 2003, and 20th in 2005.

Ivey has also reached a record eight final tables on the World Poker Tour. He has lost several of these WPT events by being eliminated while holding the same starting hand each time, an ace and a queen. Eight out of the nine times Phil Ivey has cashed in a WPT event, he has also made the television final table. During the sixth season of the WPT in February 2008, Ivey made the final table at the LA Poker Classic at Commerce Casino that included Phil Hellmuth and Nam Le, eventually capturing the $1,596,000 first prize and putting an end to his streak of seven WPT final tables without a victory. Ivey has earned close to three million dollars in WPT cashes. Ivey made his debut on the European Poker Tour in Barcelona, September 2006. He came to the final table of nine as the chipleader, but he eventually came in second to Bjørn-Erik Glenne from Norway.
In 2006, Ivey was enticed to London to participate in The London All Star Challenge of the inaugural European Poker Masters. Not only Europe's first-ever independent poker tour, the EPM boasted the best lineup of players ever seen in Europe. As one of the favorites, Ivey made it to the final table to finish seventh, and collected £6,700 ($12,534). In November 2005, Ivey won the $1,000,000 first prize at the Monte Carlo Millions tournament. Just one day after, Ivey took home another $600,000 for finishing first at "The FullTiltPoker.Net Invitational Live from Monte Carlo". His six opponents were (in reverse finishing order) Mike Matusow, Phil Hellmuth, Gus Hansen, Chris Ferguson, Dave Ulliott, and John Juanda. As of 2008, his total live tournament winnings exceed $10,000,000.[10] $3,104,014 of his total winnings have come from cashes as the WSOP.[11]

Ivey is part of the design team for Full Tilt Poker. He can often be found playing online at Full Tilt, playing high-stakes cash games up to $500-$1000 no-limit and $2000-$4000 limit under the tag Phil Ivey. According to HighStakesDB.com Phil Ivey earned $1.99 million on FullTilt in 2007[12] and $7.34 million in 2008.[13]

MR. B

Doyle F. Brunson[1] (born August 10, 1933) is an iconic American professional poker player who has played professionally for over 50 years.[2] He is the first two-time World Series of Poker main event champion to win consecutively,[3] a Poker Hall of Fame inductee, and the author of several highly influential books on poker.
Brunson is the first player to earn $1 million in poker tournaments and has won ten World Series of Poker bracelets throughout his career, tied with Johnny Chan for second all-time, one behind Phil Hellmuth's eleven. He is also one of only four players to have won the Main Event at the World Series of Poker multiple times, which he did in 1976 and 1977. In addition, he is the first of five players to win both the WSOP Main Event and a World Poker Tour title. In January 2006, Bluff Magazine voted Brunson the #1 most influential force in the world of poker.[4]

Brunson was born in Longworth, Fisher County, Texas, a town with a population of approximately 100, the eldest of three children. Because of Longworth's small size, Brunson frequently ran long distances to other towns, and became a promising athlete. He was part of the All-State Texas basketball team, and practiced the one-mile run to keep in shape in the off-season. Although he was more interested in basketball than running, he entered the 1950 Texas Interscholastic Track Meet and won the one-mile event with a time of 4:43. Despite receiving offers from many colleges, he attended Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, because it was close to his home.
The Minneapolis Lakers were interested in Brunson, but a knee injury ended his playing days. He had taken a summer job and was unloading some sheetrock; when the ton of weight shifted, Brunson instinctively tried to stop it, but it landed on his leg, breaking it in two places. He was in a cast for two years, and the injury ended his hopes of becoming a professional basketball player. He still occasionally requires a crutch to get around because of the injury. Brunson changed his focus from athletics to education and obtained a master's degree in administrative education.
Brunson had begun playing poker before his injury, playing five-card draw and finding it "easy". He played more often after being injured and his winnings paid for his expenses. He obtained a bachelor's degree in 1954 and a master's the following year. After graduating, he took a job as a business machines salesman but, on his first day, he was invited to play in a seven-card stud game and earned over a month's salary in under three hours. He soon left the company and became a professional poker player

Brunson started off by playing in illegal games on Exchange Street, Fort Worth, Texas with a friend named Dwayne Hamilton. Eventually, they began traveling around Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, playing in bigger games, and met fellow professionals Amarillo Slim and Sailor Roberts. The illegal games Brunson played in during this time were usually run by criminals who were often members of organized crime, so rules were not always enforced. Brunson has admitted to having a gun pulled on him several times and that he was robbed and beaten. Poker was not a socially accepted career path during this time and, given the reputation of those running the games he was playing in, he had little legal recourse.
Hamilton moved back to Fort Worth while the others teamed up and travelled around together, gambling on poker, golf and, in Doyle's words, "just about everything".[5] They pooled their money together for gambling and after six years, they made their first serious trip to Las Vegas and lost all of it, a six-figure amount. They decided to stop playing as partners yet remain friends.
Brunson finally settled in Las Vegas.
Other than his poker success, his greatest achievement is probably his book, Super/System, which is widely considered to be one of the most authoritative books on poker. Originally self-published in 1978, Super/System was the book that transformed poker by giving ordinary players an insight into the way that professionals such as Brunson played and won, so much so that Brunson believes that it cost him a lot of money. An updated revision, Super/System 2 was published in 2004. Besides Brunson, several top poker players contributed chapters to Super/System including Bobby Baldwin, Mike Caro, David Sklansky, Chip Reese and Joey Hawthorne. The book is subtitled "How I made one million dollars playing poker", by Doyle Brunson. Brunson is also the author of Poker Wisdom of a Champion, originally published as According to Doyle by Lyle Stuart in 1984.
Brunson continues to play in the biggest poker games in the world, including a $4000/$8000 limit mixed poker game in "Bobby's Room" at the Bellagio. He also plays in many of the biggest poker tournaments around the world. He won his ninth gold bracelet in a mixed games event in 2003, and in 2004 he finished 53rd (in a field of 2,576) in the No Limit Texas hold 'em Championship event. He won the Legends of Poker World Poker Tour event in 2004 (garnering him a $1.1 million prize) and finished fourth in the WPT's first championship event. Early in the morning on July 1, 2005, less than a week after Chan had won his 10th gold bracelet - setting a new record - Brunson tied the record at the 2005 WSOP. He is currently one bracelet behind Phil Hellmuth, who earned his 11th bracelet at the WSOP on June 11, 2007.
Brunson's nickname, "Texas Dolly", came from a mistake by Jimmy Snyder. Snyder was supposed to announce Brunson as "Texas Doyle", but incorrectly pronounced the first name as Dolly. It stuck and many of Brunson's fellow top pros now simply refer to Brunson as "Dolly".
Brunson has the honor of having two Texas hold'em hands named after him. One hand, a ten and a two of any suit, bears his name as he won the No Limit Hold 'Em event at the World Series of Poker two years in a row with them (1976 and 1977), in both cases completing a full house. In both 1976 and 1977, he was an underdog in the final hand, requiring Brunson to come from behind both times. Another hand known as a "Doyle Brunson", especially in Texas, is the ace and queen of any suit because, as he says on page 519 of the Super/System, he "never plays this hand." He changes his wording in SuperSystem2, however, noting that he "tries to never play this hand". However, it has been seen on episodes of High Stakes Poker, Poker After Dark, the Professional Poker Tour and the World Poker Tour that he does play it.
Brunson endorses the online poker room Doyles Room.
As of 2008, his total live tournament winnings exceeded $5,300,000.[6] He has totaled $2,808,945 in earnings at the WSOP.[7]

JAMIE GOLD ONE OF THE BEST BLUFFERS

Gold was born in Kansas City, Missouri as Jamie M. Usher and moved to Manhattan as a young child [4] with his mother. His name was changed by court order to Jamie M. Gold following his mother's divorce and remarriage to Dr. Robert Gold. The family moved to Paramus, New Jersey where Gold was raised by his mother and her second husband. He graduated from Paramus High School in 1987.[5] He later earned a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York at Albany in 1991, and studied entertainment law at UCLA.[6]

Gold's interest in poker began as a youngster. His mother, Jane, was a keen poker player, and his grandfather was a champion gin rummy player. Gold's most serious efforts to improve his recreational poker exploits came about when he began working with former WSOP main event winners Johnny Chan and Chris Moneymaker on an upcoming television show, and Chan began to mentor Gold in poker.[10][11] In 2005, Gold began regularly playing in poker tournaments. In April 2005 at the Bicycle Casino, he won his first major no limit Texas hold 'em tournament, earning $54,225. Over the next 12 months, Gold had seven more in the money finishes in California tournaments. A neighbor of 2000 WSOP main event winner Chris Ferguson, [6] Gold has said in numerous interviews that Ferguson was one of the few pros to endorse his poker style during the 2006 main event tournament, which he eventually won. While many pros criticized Gold's play in the later stages of the tournament, Ferguson urged him to stick with his own perfected style as he progressed deep into the money. Gold favored pressuring all of the players at the table especially when playing position (last to act in a betting round). Bluff magazine, a major poker trade publication has analyzed Gold’s winning poker strategies as follows: “He forced his tablemates to risk their entire stack time after time. If they reraised him, he either knew they were holding the nuts and folded, or he sniffed out a bluff and forced them all in,” thus "he transformed this strategy into an art form." [12]

At the 2006 WSOP, Gold maintained a significant chip lead from Day 4 onwards to win the World Series of Poker Main Event (No Limit Texas hold 'em, $10,000 buy-in), outlasting 8,772 other players. Excluding 4th place finisher Allen Cunningham, Gold had more casino tournament final table finishes than the rest of his final table opponents combined.[13] Gold eliminated 7 of his 8 opponents at the final table. Gold defeated Paul Wasicka heads-up, earning a record $12,000,000 when in the final hand his 'Q♠ 9♣' made a pair with the board of 'Q♣ 8♥ 5♥'. Wasicka held '10♥ 10♠' and did not improve with the 'A♦' on the turn and '4♣' on the river. Gold won the event despite earlier saying that he would prefer to finish second as he felt uncomfortable with the idea of being famous.[14] Gold ate blueberries during the play of the 2006 WSOP main event final table and joked in a post-tournament interview that the blueberries were "brain food" and the reason he won.[11] Gold's WSOP win was marked by an uncanny ability to goad his opponents into either calling his bets when he had an unbeatable hand or folding to him when he was weak. He consistently told his opponents that he was weak or strong, telling the truth sometimes, and sometimes lying, with the net result of successfully deceiving his opponents most of the time. Prior to the 2006 WSOP Main Event, Gold had compiled a solid record in tournament competition, using lessons learned from poker legend and previous two time WSOP main event winner and owner of 10 WSOP bracelets, Johnny Chan.
Gold's "table talk", was both an asset and a source of criticism for his tendency to tell opponents his actual hand during play, contrary to WSOP rules.[15] In one case at the final table, Gold actually flashed one of his hole cards to an opponent (a face card), creating enough uncertainty that his opponent folded the better hand. However, Gold was never penalized for any rules infraction. Prior to his elimination in the 2007 WSOP, Gold was issued a warning for his tactics.[16] As of the end of 2008, with just 13 in the money tournament finishes and only two wins, Gold's total live tournament winnings exceed a record $12,100,000, and he was the first person to eclipse the $10,000,000 mark in tournament poker.[17]. Most of his tournament winnings have come at the WSOP, where he has amassed $12,067,292 in cashes.[18] Immediately after his WSOP win, Gold called his step father, Dr. Robert I. Gold, DDS, who could not attend as he had suffered from Lou Gehrig's disease. Gold pledged to use his winnings to make his step father more comfortable.[11] His step father died four months later on December 13, 2006.[19]