James Obst (born August 3, 1990) is a poker player from Adelaide, Australia, and a

World Series of Poker The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker p ...

bracelet winner. He attended St Peter's College in Adelaide.

Career

Obst was an accomplished junior

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 dist ...

player, representing Australia three times at the

World Junior Chess Championship The World Junior Chess Championship is an under-20 chess tournament (players must have been under 20 years old on 1 January in the year of competition) organized by the World Chess Federation (FIDE). The idea was the brainchild of William Rits ...

. He began playing poker at the age of 14. He started with no-limit hold 'em in 2/4 cents and then tried

Stud Stud may refer to the following terms: Animals * Stud (animal), an animal retained for breeding ** Stud farm, a property where livestock are bred Arts and entertainment * Stud (band), a British progressive rock group * The Stud (bar), a gay ba ...

Hi-Lo. Under the name "Andy McLEOD" (a nod to former

Adelaide Crows The Adelaide Crows (officially the Adelaide Football Club) are a professional Australian rules football team based in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1990. The Crows has fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) since ...

Australian rules footballer Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

Andrew McLeod Andrew Luke McLeod (born 4 August 1976) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is the games record holder for Adelaide, having played 340 games. ...

), Obst has won four Spring Championship of Online Poker titles, a

World Championship of Online Poker The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is an online poker tournament series sponsored by PokerStars. It is played on the PokerStars website in September. Established in 2002, WCOOP is PokerStars' attempt to establish the online equivalen ...

title, and one

Full Tilt Online Poker Series The Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) was an online poker tournament series which ran on Full Tilt Poker. It was established in August 2006 and was held approximately every three months. The FTOPS consisted of multiple tournaments in a variet ...

tournament. By the age of 19, he had already won more than $1.5 million online. Obst's first recorded live tournament cash came in 2009. At the WSOP, he has cashed 44 times and made 16 top-10 finishes. After twice finishing runner-up, Obst won his first bracelet in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

in the $10,000 Razz Championship, earning $265,000. His largest cash came from a 13th-place finish at the WSOP Main Event in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

for $427,000. As of June 2023, Obst's live earnings exceed US$3,137,000. His 44 WSOP cashes account for more than $2.2 million of those winnings. James Obst did some coaching for online website RunItOnce.

World Series of Poker bracelets

Personal life

In his free time, Obst still plays chess, and he enjoys

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

and

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

External links

Hendon Mob profileWSOP.com profile

References

Australian poker players World Series of Poker bracelet winners 1990 births Living people {{Australia-bio-stub