2011 has already been an exciting year in poker, with some predictable results set alongside a few exciting surprises – here we take a look at some of the top poker players of the year – what they have achieved and how they got there.
Erik Seidel
Since his induction into the Poker Hall of Fame last year, 51-year-old Seidel has continued to go from strength to strength, earning him the spot of top earner in 2011 – cashing an impressive $3m+ so far this season.
Having racked up more than two decades at the tables, Seidel is the posterboy for experienced poker players. After starting out his career in competitive play as a backgammon player, Seidel spent some time playing to stock market before turn his hand to poker hands, playing his first major tournament back in 1988 at the WSOP – think about it – that’s before we even knew what the internet was, let alone started visiting sites such as www.partypokerbonuscodes.com!
Erik’s Story Tells Us: Persistence is important if you want to rise to the top ranks of poker players.
Galen Hall
Sitting in an extremely impressive second place for this year is Galen Hall. Just two years into his professional poker playing career, Hall has graduated to high roller status after honing his skills playing poker online while studying at Standford. In 2009 he cleared somewhere in the region of $1m online – but this year has seen his winnings reach a figure in excess of $3m - winning the Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure and placing in other tournaments including the European Poker Tour and World Series of Poker.
Galen’s Story Tells Us: Playing poker online for fun can lead to big things.
Ivan Freitaz
Father of three Freitaz takes time out from running his own transport company to play professional poker – a pastime that has seen him cash in excess of $2m with a win at the PokerStars EPT in Madrid this year topping the list of successes.
Ivan’s Story Tells Us: There is no need to quit your day job to be a poker pro.
David Gorr
This Australian grandfather has been playing poker professionally since the turn of the Millenium. A computer technician by trade, Mr Gorr cashed a cool $2m+ when he won the Aussie Millions No Limit Hold’em tournament back in January. The 68-year-old player reportedly celebrated his win with a vanilla slice and told the press that the winnings would be used to treat his two children and five grandchildren.
David’s Story Tells Us: It’s never too late to become a star poker player.
Bertrand Grosspellier
This 30-year-old Frenchman is a former professional gamer who decided to use the skills learned in that arena at the tables and took the online poker world by storm when he arrived on the scene at the beginning of the decade. Playing under his online nick of ElkY – he was the first player to achieve Supernova and then Supernova Elite status on PokerStars. Moving offline he placed second in the EPT Scandinavian Open in 2009 and so far this year has won the WSOP 7 Card Stud Championship as well as the EPT Madrid No Limit High Rollers and No Limit High Rollers Turbo – cashing around $2m so far.
Bertrand’s Story Tells Us: Playing online can be useful preparation for tournament play.