Phil Laak
Philip Courtney Laak (born September 8, 1972) is an Irish–American professional poker player and a poker commentator, now residing in Los Angeles, California. Laak holds a World Poker Tour (WPT) title, a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet, and has appeared on numerous nationally aired television shows. Early life Laak was born in Dublin, Ireland, raised on the East Coast of the United States, and now lives in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. His family moved to Wellesley, Massachusetts, when he was four years old. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a degree in mechanical engineering and worked in varying jobs prior to getting into open poker games in California. He is a former roommate of fellow professional poker player Antonio Esfandiari. Prior to moving to the west, Laak lived for several years in New York City where he honed his skills as a backgammon player before turning his focus to poker. Poker career Laak learned to play poker as a child. His ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2006 World Series Of Poker
The 2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP) began on June 25, 2006 with satellite events, with regular play commencing on June 26 with the annual Casino Employee event, and the Tournament of Champions held on June 28 and 29. 40 more events in various disciplines including Omaha, seven-card stud and razz, plus ladies' and senior tournaments led up to the 10,000 US$ no-limit Texas hold 'em main event starting July 28 and running through the final table on August 10. All events were held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, which marked the first time that a casino other than Binion's Horseshoe (now "Binion's") hosted the final table of the main event. 6 days reserved for the first 2 rounds of play for the main event were established by Harrah's Entertainment, which has run the annual event since its purchase from the Binion family in 2004. The first prize in the main event was $12 million (US$), at that time the richest prize for the winner of any sports or ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Poker Royale
''Poker Royale'' is a television series on the Game Show Network (GSN), which featured No Limit Texas hold 'em Poker. The first series began on December 7, 2004. The eighth and final series, ''Poker Royale: Young Bloods II'', began airing on December 9, 2005. The series host at its conclusion was John Ahlers, with commentary by Robert Williamson III and sideline reporting by Lisa Dergan. The series Poker Royale: The WPPA Championship The first series was based on the championship of the World Poker Players Association. The show was hosted by Kevin Nealon, with commentary by Williamson (Evelyn Ng provided commentary for the first two episodes). Suzanne Freeman provided sideline reporting. A total of 72 players participated and put up the $5,000 entrance fee. Unlike later series, this series was done in a tournament-style format where players who had zero chips were eliminated. Also different from other series were that three tables were active during the early episodes, and was ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Polaris (poker Bot)
Polaris is a Texas hold 'em poker playing program developed by the computer poker research group at the University of Alberta, a project that has been under way for 16 years as of 2007. Polaris is a composite program consisting of a number of bots, including Hyperborean08, the winner of the limit equilibrium series in the 2008 Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Computer Poker Competition. Polaris also contains a number of other fixed strategies, and chooses between these strategies during a match. Polaris requires little computational power at match time, so it is run on an Apple MacBook Pro laptop during competitions. Polaris plays only heads-up (two player) Limit Texas hold'em. Play against professionals On July 23–24, 2007, Polaris played against poker professionals Phil Laak and Ali Eslami at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver, B.C. The competition consisted of four duplicate matches, with 500 hands per match. In each duplicate match, the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ali Eslami
Ali Eslami is a business strategist and renowned high-stakes poker primarily focused on limit mix-games. Eslami is one of the first two people to win the Man-Machine Poker Competition. He represented the United States on the U.S. Poker team in the IFP's Nation's Cup inaugural event. Since Eslami's appearance at the Legends of Poker WPT Season 2 in 2003, he has gone on to pocket over $200,000 with over 14 cash showings in tournament play. Eslami is primarily a cash game player, however, playing chiefly in high-limit poker games in Los Angeles. In June 2007, Ali Eslami took 5th in the 2007 World Series of Poker, $2,500 H.O.R.S.E event. Following his showing in the 2007 WSOP event, Eslami appeared alongside fellow professional poker player Phil Laak in July 2007 to participate in a competition against Polaris, the University of Alberta poker bot. The matches consisted of 500 hands with four matches total and 16 hours of cumulative play, in Texas Hold'Em poker. Eslami and Laak s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Association For The Advancement Of Artificial Intelligence
The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) is an international scientific society devoted to promote research in, and responsible use of, artificial intelligence. AAAI also aims to increase public understanding of artificial intelligence (AI), improve the teaching and training of AI practitioners, and provide guidance for research planners and funders concerning the importance and potential of current AI developments and future directions. History The organization was founded in 1979 under the name "American Association for Artificial Intelligence" and changed its name in 2007 to "Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence". It has in excess of 4,000 members worldwide. In its early history, the organization was presided over by notable figures in computer science such as Allen Newell, Edward Feigenbaum, Marvin Minsky and John McCarthy. The current president is Yolanda Gil, and the president elect is Bart Selman. Conferences and publica ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Erick Lindgren
Erick A. Lindgren (born August 11, 1976, in Burney, California) is an American professional poker player. He has won two World Poker Tour (WPT) titles, two World Series of Poker bracelets, and more than $10,500,000 in tournament earnings during his poker career. As of April 2020 he is 85th on the all-time money list of poker. Poker career He won his first major tournament at the Bellagio in 2002 and followed that up with his first World Poker Tour (WPT) win ten months later. Six months later, he won the WPT PartyPoker Million III cruise, where he walked away with the million dollar top prize. In January 2005, he finished runner-up in the World Series of Poker Circuit Event in Atlantic City. In February, he finished fifth in the WPT LA Poker Classic and just a week later, he won the second Professional Poker Tour tournament, also in LA. In January 2006, he made another WPT final table, finishing third at the 2006 Borgata Winter Poker Open. In June 2006, Lindgren won the $60 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mike Matusow
Michael Matusow (born April 30, 1968) is an American professional poker player residing in Henderson, Nevada. Matusow's nickname of "The Mouth" reflects his reputation for trash-talking at the poker table. Matusow began playing poker seriously in the early 1990s, first while working as a poker dealer, then as a professional player. His successes include being a four-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and the winner of the 2005 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions. Early years Matusow was born in Los Angeles, California. He was first introduced to poker when he played video poker at the Maxim Casino at the age of 18. He was a regular and played so much that he suffered from repetitive strain injury in his shoulders and arms. He occasionally stole money from his mother's purse and at one point attended Gamblers Anonymous meetings. Matusow was taught Texas hold 'em in 1989 by a rounder named Steve Samaroff. Poker career At the 1998 World Series of Poker (WSOP), M ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Annette Obrestad
Annette Obrestad (born 18 September 1988) is a Norwegian YouTuber and poker player. She is the youngest person to ever win a World Series of Poker bracelet, which she accomplished at the 2007 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE). She also runs a YouTube channel called Annette's Makeup Corner where she posts makeup tutorials and reviews, specializing in eyeshadow. Poker Online poker Annette Obrestad started her poker career online when she was only fifteen years old using the online screen-name "Annette_15." She claims she never had to deposit money on any online poker site, instead making her initial online bankroll by winning freeroll poker tournaments. Between September 2006 and February 2007, she won over $500,000 on Pokerstars, $200,000 on UltimateBet, and $136,000 on Full Tilt Poker. Pocketfives.com, a site that tracks online poker, ranked her number 51 in 2008. She also has been the site's top-ranked player in the past. In July 2007, Obrestad won a $4 buy-in 180 perso ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Erik Seidel
Erik Seidel (born November 6, 1959) is an American professional poker player from Las Vegas, Nevada, who has won nine World Series of Poker bracelets and a World Poker Tour title. In 2010, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. Early life Seidel was born in New York City. He played professional backgammon in his youth. He eventually became a trader on the American stock exchange stock market, and then moved on to poker. Seidel was one of the group of now famous players from the former Mayfair Club in New York City, including Stu Ungar, Jay Heimowitz, Mickey Appleman, Howard Lederer, Jason Lester, Steve Zolotow, Paul Magriel, and Dan Harrington. Poker career World Series of Poker In his first major poker tournament, Seidel was runner-up in the 1988 World Series of Poker Main Event to Johnny Chan. This final hand was featured in the 1998 movie ''Rounders''. Seidel made the WSOP Main Event final table again in 1999, finishing in fourth place in the event won by Noel Furlo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jennifer Harman
Jennifer C. Harman (born November 29, 1964) is an American professional poker player. She has won two World Series of Poker bracelets in open events, one of only four women to have done so. Career Harman won her first World Series of Poker bracelet in 2000 at the No Limit Deuce to Seven Lowball Event (at a final table that also included fellow professionals Lyle Berman and Steve Zolotow). She had never played that game prior to the event, but received a five-minute tutoring session from Howard Lederer before playing. She won her second WSOP bracelet in 2002 at the $5K Limit Texas hold 'em event (the field also included Mimi Tran, Humberto Brenes, and Allen Cunningham). She was the first woman to hold two bracelets in WSOP open events, joined by Vanessa Selbst in 2012, Loni Harwood in 2015, and Kristen Bicknell in 2020. In 2004, Harman took a year away from poker to have her second kidney transplant. Problems with her kidneys – shared by her sister and mother, who died from ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Doyle Brunson
Doyle F. Brunson (born August 10, 1933) is a retired American poker player who played professionally for over 50 years. He is a two-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion, a Poker Hall of Fame inductee, and the author of several books on poker. Brunson was the first player to win $1 million in poker tournaments. He has won ten WSOP bracelets throughout his career, tied with Johnny Chan and Phil Ivey for second all-time, behind Phil Hellmuth's sixteen bracelets. 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. He is also one of only three players, along with Bill Boyd and Loren Klein, to have won WSOP tournaments in four consecutive years. In addition, he is the first of six players to win both the WSOP Main Event and a World Poker Tour title. In January 2006, ''Bluff Magazine'' voted Brunson the most influential force in the world of poker. On June 11, 2018, Brunson announ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Phil Hellmuth
Phillip Jerome Hellmuth Jr. (born July 16, 1964) is an American professional poker player who has won a record sixteen World Series of Poker bracelets. He is the winner of the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the Main Event of the 2012 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), and he is a 2007 inductee of the WSOP's Poker Hall of Fame. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest tournament players of all time. Personal life Hellmuth was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and attended Madison West High School. He had trouble with grades and friends during school and said at the time he was the "ugly duckling" of his family. He then moved on to the University of Wisconsin–Madison for three years, where he dropped out to become a full-time poker player. Since 1992, he has lived in Palo Alto, California, with his wife, Katherine Sanborn, who is a psychiatrist at Stanford University, and their two sons, Phillip III and Nicholas. Poker career He is ranked 19th on the a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |