Nick Schulman (born September 18, 1984, in New York City) 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 and commentator.

Early life

Schulman grew up in New York City, and began playing pool at the famous Amsterdam Billiards. He was mentored by several of the best players in the NYC area from ages 13–19, at which point his focus switched to poker.

Poker career

Schulman began to play poker in 2002, at the age of 18, and by the age of 19 went professional. In 2005, at the age of 21, he won the fourth season

World Poker Tour The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand. Since 2002, the World Poker Tour has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the fi ...

(WPT) World Poker Finals

poker tournament A poker tournament is a tournament where players compete by playing poker. It can feature as few as two players playing on a single table (called a "heads up poker, heads-up" tournament), and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on th ...

, winning $2,167,500, a record for a regular season event on the WPT. He also became the youngest winner of a WPT event. Less than a month later, Schulman finished 4th in the

World Series of Poker circuit event The World Series of Poker Circuit is a series of poker tournaments held annually at a variety of casinos since 2005 as a build-up to the World Series of Poker (WSOP). All Championship events are competed in no limit Texas hold 'em; preliminary even ...

Atlantic City Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, Boardwalk (entertainment district), boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020 United States censu ...

, winning an additional $74,495. In April 2006, Schulman won the WPT Battle of Champions IV event, eliminating

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to take the title. Prior to winning the WPT event, Schulman had regularly played poker on the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. On June 12, 2009, Schulman won his first WSOP bracelet in the $10,000 World Championship No Limit Deuce to Seven Draw event, defeating a final table that included

John Juanda Johnson "John" Juanda (born July 8, 1971) is an Indonesian professional poker player of Chinese descent based in Tokyo, Japan. He has won five World Series of Poker bracelets. Personal life Juanda was born into a Hoklo family in Medan, Nort ...

David Benyamine David Benyamine (born July 5, 1972 in Paris, France) is a French professional poker player with a World Poker Tour title. Benyamine was a professional tennis player in his early career but had to retire because of shoulder pain. He was also a suc ...

, and

Michael Binger Michael W. Binger (born December 20, 1976 in Delray Beach, Florida) is a part-time professional poker player, based in Atherton, California. He has a brother, Nick Binger, who also has several high-profile tournament cashes. Binger graduated ...

. In July 2012, he won his second WSOP bracelet in the same event, taking home $294,321 in winnings. Schulman appeared on the MTV show "World of Jenks" in September 2010. In October 2018, he also made an appearance on PokerGO’s revived version of Poker After Dark and after the retirement of

Gabe Kaplan Gabriel Weston Kaplan (born March 31, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, and professional poker player. He played the eponymous teacher in the 1970s sitcom ''Welcome Back, Kotter''. He later became a professional poker player and a commenta ...

, he replaced him in

High Stakes Poker ''High Stakes Poker'' is an American cash game poker television program. The poker variant played on the show is no limit Texas hold 'em. The first four seasons ran from January 16, 2006 to December 17, 2007 on GSN. The next three seasons ran fr ...

in the second episode of Season 10. During the 2019 WSOP Main Event, Schulman was doing commentary for the coverage by

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

and PokerGO. He is a regular player in the world’s most famous super high stakes cash game room Bobby’s Room, recently officially renamed “Legends Room”, at the Bellagio, in Las Vegas. As of February 2023, his total career live tournament winnings exceed $15,300,000.

References

External links

Poker News Daily article on WPT winBrief bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schulman, Nick 1984 births American poker players Jewish American sportspeople Living people World Poker Tour winners World Series of Poker bracelet winners 21st-century American Jews