Isaac Haxton (born September 6, 1985) is an American professional

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

player, amateur

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

player, and a youth

champion.

Early life

Haxton was born in suburban

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and raised in

Westchester Westchester most commonly refers to Westchester County, New York, immediately north of New York City. __NOTOC__ It may also refer to: Geography Canada *Westchester Station, Nova Scotia, Canada United States *Town of Westchester, the original seat ...

. His mother is a psychiatrist and his father is an English professor who introduced Isaac to

games of skill A game of skill or game of wits is a game where the outcome is determined mainly by mental or physical skill, rather than chance. Alternatively, a game of chance is one where its outcome is strongly influenced by some randomizing device, such ...

at an early age. He played chess at the age of four and ''

Magic: The Gathering ''Magic: The Gathering'' (colloquially known as ''Magic'' or ''MTG'') is a tabletop and digital collectable card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast (now a subsidiary of Hasbro), ''Magic'' was the first ...

'' by the age of ten. After high school Haxton attended

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

as a

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

major, but later spent more time playing poker than studying.

Poker career

After turning 18, Haxton transitioned from competitive ''Magic: The Gathering'' to playing poker at the

Turning Stone Casino Turning Stone Resort Casino is a Native American resort casino owned and operated by the Oneida Indian Nation of New York (OIN) in Verona, New York. The facility opened on July 20, 1993, and offers golf amenities (on- and off-site golf courses ...

Verona, New York Verona (called ''Te-o-na-ta-le'', "''pine forest''" by the Haudenosaunee) is a town in southwestern Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 6,293 at the 2010 census. The town was named after Verona, Italy. Verona is located so ...

starting at $3/$6 limit before slowly moving up in stakes. He transitioned to online poker with a $50 deposit on

Ultimate Bet Cereus Poker Network was an online poker network comprising Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. The site is now insolvent and not processing player withdrawals. Cereus is owned by a private company, Blanca Games. Blanca Games bought all Network asse ...

. In 2007, he cashed in his first tournament at the WPT Championship Event finishing runner-up to

Ryan Daut Ryan Daut (born April 18, 1984) is an American professional poker player from New Jersey. After earning a degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Richmond in 2006, Daut began work on a doctorate in mathematics at Penn ...

for $861,789. In September 2018, Haxton won Event #4: $10,000 Short Deck at the

2018 Poker Masters The 2018 Poker Masters was the second season of the Poker Masters. It took place from September 8-15, 2018, from the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event was sponsored by Poker Central, and every final table was s ...

for $176,000. In December 2018, Haxton won Super High Roller Bowl V for $3,672,000. In January 2023, Haxton won the

2023 PokerGO Cup The 2023 PokerGO Cup was the third iteration of the PokerGO Cup, a series of high-stakes poker tournaments as part of the PokerGO Tour. It was held from inside the PokerGO Studio at Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The series took place ...

$50,000 No-Limit Hold'em finale for $598,000. The next week, Haxton won the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100,000 PCA Super High Roller for $1,082,230. As of January 2023, Haxton has cashed for more than $31,500,000 in live poker tournaments.

Online poker

Haxton is considered one of the top online cash game specialists and plays under the aliases, ''Ike Haxton'', ''luvtheWNBA'', and ''philivey2694'' where he has earned over $2,000,000. Although successful in tournament play, he prefers online cash games and considers them to be his specialty.

Personal life

Haxton is married to his wife Zoe. His father wrote his biography, ''Fading Hearts on the River: My Son’s Life in Poker''.

References

External links

Hendon Mob profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haxton, Isaac American poker players Living people 1985 births Brown University alumni High roller bettors