Most professional poker players spend the lion’s share of their playing time in live games. The big-name tournament players are famous because of the television coverage of their live play. Lots of these players play online, but it’s not like the live tournament scene. Most celebrity poker players are sponsored by an online poker site. They wear the site’s logo in live events and play on the site for periodic promotions or whenever they want to.
Full Tilt Poker has professionals Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Jennifer Harman, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Clonie Gowan, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, Gus Hansen and Allen Cunningham on their team.
PokerStars has Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, Barry Greenstein, Isabelle Mercier, Daniel Negreanu, Tom McEvoy, Victor Ramdin, Vanessa Rouso, and Humberto Brenes.
UltimateBet sponsors professionals Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, Jim Worth, Devin Porter and Annie Duke.
There are two three-time WSOP main event winners. Only Johnny Moss (1970, 1971 and 1974) and Stu Unger (1981, 1982 and 1997) were able to achieve that feat. They both won it twice in a row, as did Doyle Brunson (1976 and 1977) and Johnny Chan (1987 and 1988).
Other big-name winners include Chris “Jesus” Ferguson (2000), Phil Hellmuth (1989), Dan Harrington (1995), Scotty Nguyen (1998), Huck Seed (1996), Robert Varkonyi (2002) and Carlo Mortensen (2001).
Recent winners have won huge amounts, with the biggest winner being Jamie Gold ($12 million) in 2006. In 2007, Jerry Yang won $8.25 million and Joseph Hachem pocketed $7.5 million in 2005. Chris Moneymaker (2003) set the poker world afire when he won the main event, and $2.5 million, after winning his way into the tournament via an online satellite tournament. Greg Raymer was the other big main event winner, winning $5 million in 2004, and almost won it again the next year in 2005.
Dan Harrington is not only one of the best no-limit tournament players in the world, but he is an astute businessman as well. It’s no secret that he’s interested in only the money; not the fame that can come along with it. Harrington is not the high-roller type, and is always on the search for a discount or a freebie meal. Even after he became a wealthy man, he continued to rent a room from a friend to keep his living costs down.
Harrington has become a financial advisor to many players. At the 1995 WSOP Main Event, he proposed to the players at the final table that they should all chop the cash nine ways, and he would help them all invest it and get rich. He continued to try and share the cash with the remaining players after each player was knocked out, but no would take him up on his offer. He ended up winning the event and earned a million dollars all for himself. I don’t know about you, but if I’m at a table with Dan Harrington and he wants to chop, I would most likely take him up on it.
His keen business sense has taken him off the tables more than it did in the past. Harrington is surely making more dough with his loan company, Anchor Loan, which employs and services many poker players. He has issued over 2500 loans and claims that no investors have ever lost any money with him. Harrington knows the value of investing his money in the real estate market, which can be a safe haven as long as the appropriate opportunities are chosen.
It makes sense to me that he’s able to walk away from the action. His sarcastic nickname “Action” was given to him because of his lack of exactly that, and I doubt that he has ever been under the spell of the games he has mastered in his life. These games include poker, chess (a state championship), and backgammon (another championship).
Harrington has been part of MIT teams that have developed systems to beat Roulette and blackjack games that have gone down in gaming folklore. He has nothing left to do in a casino, so now he makes money like the rest of the wealthy world does: He lends it, with interest.
Play a little online poker and maybe make a few bucks!
