Some say that the game of poker teaches lessons in things like scrutiny, fortitude, and self-control, which make up the very building blocks of an astute business mind. This is one of the reasons why many gamblers decided to become entrepreneurs and turned their ion for gambling into a lucrative business.
Let us show you a few examples of entrepreneurs who are also professional gamblers. Get inspired by the achievements of the greatest poker players and go-to online casinos to train your own skills. If you want a good start to your gaming session, use a casino bonus code and get your deposit doubled or even tripled. And now, let’s start with the stars of the gambling world.
Doyle Brunson
Doyle Brunson was the first pro to win the World Series of Poker Championships twice in a row. He was also the first person to win $1,000,000 in a single tournament. By winning 10 WSOP bracelets, he is currently second on the list of the best poker players of all time, together with Johnny Chan. Four of the wins came in consecutive years (1976-1979). Only Phil Hellmuth won more, 11 WSOP bracelets. Brunson won the WSOP Main Events in 1976 and 1977, something only four other players before him had managed. He was the first of only five players in history to win both a WSOP Main Event title and a World Poker Tour title. Brunson has won a total of $2,944,303 in WSOP events. His son Todd, also a professional poker player, won a bracelet in 2005, making them the first father-son duo to win WSOP bracelets. His daughter Pamela also plays poker professionally.
Brunson was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1998, and Bluff Magazine named him the number one most influential person in the world of poker in 2006. He wrote what is probably the most influential book on poker, published in 1978 and titled Super System (updated to Super System 2 in 2004). He has also written Poker Wisdom of a Champion (1984) and My Fifty Most Memorable Hands (2007).
Phil Galfond
Although he has only played live tournaments for a couple of years, he is already one of the big money winners with almost $1,000,000 in winnings. His rocket-like rise is no accident: it is widely acknowledged that Galfond has one of the best poker brains you can come across in the profession.
So it’s no wonder that Galfond came up with his own poker training website, BlueFirePoker.com, in 2009. He was all about improving the image of poker, and he saw a good opportunity to make that happen. With the site, he wanted to both give the game of poker a better image and offer newcomers and advanced players the opportunity to train skills while playing. Galfond is also said to have challenged ex-President Obama to an online poker game. Should the ex-president win, his website would donate $1,000,000 to charity. The BlueFire website is still Galfond’s commitment, and he is personally responsible for the online instructional videos and commissioning mentors.
Galfond started his poker career in 2004, playing small stakes Sit&Go tournaments. His tournament winnings so far total around $1,000,000, but his online winnings with Full Tilt’s team exceed $7,000,000 a year. Like many other young poker players who make a lot of money, he has an extravagant lifestyle, and as a member of the Ship it Holla Ballas, he travels the world in search of sweet parties, hot girls, and some poker tournaments.
Phil Ivey
In 2000, at the ripe old age of 23, Phil won his first World Series of Poker event. In Las Vegas, he immediately became a feared player in high-stakes money games. In 2002 he moved to Long Beach, California, and in the same year, he won three bracelets at the World Series of Poker. Between 2002 and 2009, he was among the top 25 contenders for a win. He currently has 10 WSOP bracelets, which he has won in the astonishingly short time of just 15 years.
In 2008, Ivey won the World Poker Tour, earning him $1,596,100 after enduring a dry spell of 7 WPT final tables without a win. He is yet to win a European Poker Tour event, having only finished 2nd when he lost to Bjorn-Erik Glenne in 2006.
While tournaments have been quite successful for him, and they are consistently a challenge for him, Ivey shows his true skills in live table games. Of particular note here is that in 2006 he won over $16,000,000 playing against Texas billionaire Andy Beal. He also consistently wins a significant amount of money at Full Tilt Poker, around $18,000,000 from 2007 to 2010.
Douglas Polk
Polk was taught chess by his father when he was a little boy; then, he played Warcraft and that too as an e-sport semi-professionally. Then he changed to poker. In 2007 as a 19-year-old, he started playing $0.01/$0.02 stakes at PokerStars and ran a $20 deposit into $10,000. In 2011 Polk nearly went broke. But he fought his way back up.
As “WCGRider,” he was ranked as the best heads-up no-limit cash game player online at the highest stakes. He played in the highest stakes with the big names for big money. In mid-2015, Polk founded the training website Upswing Poker with long-time friend and fellow poker pro Ryan Fee.
Final Thoughts
Not many poker players started their own business as decent wins from the games are enough to have a good life. But those who decided to make money with something other than the games were quite successful. The secrets of playing poker are not cheap, and the gamblers who became entrepreneurs know it.