If you have never heard of Hal Lubarsky he is someone you need to know. He just happens to be the blind poker player that cashed deep into the 2007 WSOP Main Event. I know after watching Hal play not only did I have a great deal of respect for the man but I also learned a lot about myself and what I believed to be limitations away from the poker table. Hal was and remains an inspiration to all poker players.

Fortunately our friends at www.aintluck.com have posted an exclusive interview with Hal. I highly recommend reading this very interesting snippet into Hals poker life.

Antonio Esfandiari has come a long way since joining the WPT as their official ambassador. I know everything seems to have moved so fast with the World Poker Tour and all but this was the guy that was seen during season one flourishing the cards into the air in front of the camera. Apparently Steve Lipscomb heard Antonio was a magician and thought it would add something to the intro. A star is born.

Esfandiari burst onto the scene during season one of the WPT taking down $1.4 Million at the LA Poker Classic. Since then he has life time winnings of over $2.6 Million and recently took down 2^nd place for $220k at the Monte Carlo Grand Finale. Recently Antonio has not been as much of a staple on the tournament trail but has stepped up his game quite a bit this year. You may have seen him in his reality show “I Bet You” with his side kick Phil Laak. Antonio also won a WSOP bracelet in Pot Limit Holdem in 2004.

Antonio was born in Iran in 1978 and by the time he was nine years old his family moved to the U.S. During his early years Esfandiari proved to be an excellent student and by the time he had graduated high school had gone full fledge into magic with his own show. His plan was to be THE magician. By the time he was twenty he had his own clientele and things were looking good but poker would have its lure as Antonio would find out after getting hooked on tournaments and the prospect of larger pay days than his cash game.

At the urging of his friend Phil Laak Antonio began to play tournaments and the rest is history.

Professional Poker Player Annette Obrestad is quickly becoming a force on the European poker scene. After winning over $800k online between PartyPoker and Ultimate Bet “Annette_15″ has become a staple in the more profitable live tournament trail.

Since her early days of dominance online Obrestad has taken down the WSOPE for a cool $2 Million and just recently placed second in an EPT tournament for another $400K+.

Obrestad is from Norway and started playing online at the age of 15. She has fit right into the hyper-aggressive image that most of the younger players have adopted with extremely good results. Although Obrestad is not quite old enough yet, next year she will be twenty-one, to play in Las Vegas it will be very interesting to see how she fares playing against the best tournament players on a regular basis.

Is Annette Obrestad the best female poker player in the world?

That remains to be seen.

Vanessa Rousso AKA “LadyMaverick” is one of the top female poker players in the game. This twenty-five year old Duke University and University of Miami graduate has a lot more going for her than just her looks. Vanessa can flat out play poker!

This native Floridian graduated valedictorian of her high school class and finished college at the tender age of nineteen. While pursuing her undergraduate studies at Duke she discovered a game theory class and began applying those mathematical theories to poker. Since then Vanessa has gone on to earn her Law Degree and has taken the professional poker tour by storm.

She first popped on the scene in 2006 when she mada the final table in the World Poker Tour Ladies Night Out tournament. Vanessa then went on to take seventh place at the Bellagio Five Star World Poker Classic which was good for $263k in that same year.

Now, armed with a bankroll, Vanessa continued her run by cashing in no less than five events at the 2006 World Series of Poker. She then went on to take down the Borgata on the Professional Poker Tour for another $285k.

in 2007 Vanessa made the Final Table in the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker and took down another $700k+ adding to her steadily growing bankroll. Vanessa is still learning the game but she is off to a tremendous start and is a formidable tournament poker player among the ladies and men at the table. Vanessa is also engaged to fellow professional poker player Chad Brown.

So how much is professional poker player Phil Ivey worth? Some say a couple million. Others say a couple of hundred million and then there are those that say, “I have no idea but I bet it’s a lot!” To a certain degree just about each of those answers is somewhat true. Phil Ivey has never been one to be overly flamboyant. Contrary to popular belief Phil is indeed quite an ordinary guy with extraordinary abilities at the poker tables. Today, at thirty-two years old Phil is a far cry away from the middle class upbringing he had in New Jersey and playing poker under the moniker of “Jerome.”

Here are a few things we can consider when it comes to Phil Ivey’s net worth.

First, he was going to buy-in to a $10 Million dollar Sit n Go that would award $60 Million dollars to the winner. So, it would be safe to surmise that Ivey has a bankroll of at the very least $30 Million dollars. Otherwise, I would find it very hard to believe he would put half of his bankroll on the line even for a $60 Million dollar first prize. The tournament never did take place but it raised some eye browse when Ivey forked over that kind of dough to enter. Not many professional poker players have that kind of disposable cash. I would suggest that only Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, Howard Lederer, and Doyle Brunson would be among the few that could afford to come out of their pockets without adverse affects on their bankroll or lifestyle.

Second, Phil Ivey happens to own a chunk of Full Tilt Poker. Not a bad investment at all. Ivey, along with several other poker pros, bought into Full Tilt when it was in it’s infancy and quickly built the brand from out of nowhere to one of the most recognizable poker web sites on the Internet today. They did it using some of the most successful professional poker players in the world along with innovative marketing and poker software. As far as I know Ivey owns about 5% of Full Tilt which has an estimated value of around $40 – $50 Million dollars. You also must take into account that Ivey receives annual payments of 1% of the profits from Full Tilt along with the other FULL Full Tilt Pros like Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson and the like. That has to be a considerable amount of cash considering Full Tilt is worth around $4 Billion dollars.

Third, just what kind of bankroll does Phil Ivey have? My guess is that Phil would have a bankroll of around $20 – $30 Million dollars. Why would I guess that? Well, let’s consider that Ivey once forgot he had $800,000 sitting in the cage at the Commerce. Also, let us not forget that Ivey routinely plays and BEATS the Big Game at the Bellagio. This is a game that is played with blinds of $8000 / $4000 and the pots can get as large as $500,000 although I believe they cap it at $300k. Either way you would need a bankroll of at least $3 Million dollars or more to play comfortably in this kind of game.

Lastly, we have not taken into account any potential investments that he may have. Stocks, Bonds, CD’s Real-Estate, Businesses and the like are all potential sources  of income outside of poker. Believe me, Phil Ivey could make a whole lot more money in endorsements than any other poker player alive if he chose to do so. I would even venture to say that Ivey could be one of the first mainstream poker players to have commercials on even when there is no poker being played. He has that kind of star power.

I suppose we will never know exactly what Phil Ivey’s true net worth is but I can assure you of this – he isn’t doing too bad for himself.

Not at all.

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