Ihsan "Sam" Farha ( ar, إحسان فرحة; born 1959 in
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
,
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
) is a Lebanese 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. He is best known for finishing as runner up in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in 2003. He has won three bracelets at the WSOP in his career.
Private life
When the civil war erupted in Lebanon in 1975, the Farha family moved to the United States in search of a better life.
The young Ihsan “Sammy” Farha went on to earn a degree in business administration from the
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...
. While completing his studies, he also learned to play pool, ping ball, and the video game
Pac Man so well that he earned substantial money by playing these games against others for cash.
After graduating from college, he moved to Houston, Texas. That is where he had his first encounter with poker, in the eighties. Shortly after, he made a trip to
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
. His winnings at the poker tables made him realize he could make a living playing cards. Farha then decided to quit his job and moved to Vegas.
World Series of Poker
Farha's biggest tournament finish was in the
2003 World Series of Poker
The 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was held at Binion's Horseshoe.
Preliminary events
Main Event
There were 839 entrants to the main event. Each paid $10,000 to enter what was the largest poker tournament ever played in a brick and mortar ca ...
Main Event, where he finished second to
Chris Moneymaker
Christopher Bryan Moneymaker (born November 21, 1975) is an American poker player who won the Main Event at the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP). His 2003 win is said to have revolutionized poker because he was the first person to become a worl ...
for $1,300,000. On TV, Farha was identified as an "investor", a job Farha said he never actually held but was rather an identity he held to convince people to start a game with him. On the second day of play, Farha lost a major pot to
Barry Greenstein
Barry Greenstein (born December 30, 1954, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American professional poker player. He has won a number of major events, including three at the World Series of Poker and two on the World Poker Tour. Greenstein donates his p ...
leaving him with only 10% of the average stack. He was considering leaving at this point and was talked into staying in the tournament by Greenstein. He lost the final hand to Moneymaker when he went all-in with a pair of jacks on the
flop
In computing, floating point operations per second (FLOPS, flops or flop/s) is a measure of computer performance, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations. For such cases, it is a more accurate meas ...
, only to be called by Moneymaker who had flopped bottom two pair, which held after the final river card was dealt.
In a rematch between Farha and Moneymaker a few months later, organized by
PokerStars
PokerStars is an online poker cardroom that was a part of The Stars Group until it was sold to Flutter Entertainment on May 5, 2020. It can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for the Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It is the large ...
, Farha won. They played against each other again in a special "grudge match" during
2011 World Series of Poker
The 2011 World Series of Poker was the 42nd annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). The WSOP is the most prestigious poker tournament in the world with the winner of the Main Event considered to be the World Champion. It was held at the Rio All Suit ...
, which was won by Moneymaker in best-of-three format.
World Series of Poker bracelets
All of Farha's WSOP bracelets have come in
Omaha
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...
events.
Other poker activities
*Farha has also finished in the money in the
, once for $75,000 and the other time for $125,000. He also has three cashes in
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 ...
events, for a little over $100,000.
*Farha co-authored a book ''Farha on Omaha'', a detailed guide on Omaha poker strategy. Farha intersperses basic strategies with his own personal strategies, so players can learn not only the game but also the style of Farha himself.
*Farha is working on a book, tentatively titled ''Luck is Far More Than Enough'', a
reality TV
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...
poker series, and a
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
.
*Farha is a
spokesman
A spokesperson, spokesman, or spokeswoman, is someone engaged or elected to speak on behalf of others.
Duties and function
In the present media-sensitive world, many organizations are increasingly likely to employ professionals who have receiv ...
for
Harrah's
Harrah's Entertainment (later named Caesars Entertainment Corporation, previously The Promus Companies) was an American casino and hotel company founded in Reno, Nevada, and based in Paradise, Nevada, that operated over 50 properties and seven go ...
casino in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
.
*Farha has appeared on the
GSN series ''
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 seasons 1-4. Farha also made a cameo appearance in the 2007 film ''
Lucky You''.
*As of 2017, his total winnings exceed $2,800,000 in live
tournament poker, although he tends to primarily play in high-stakes Omaha
cash game
Cash games, also sometimes referred to as ring games or live action games, are poker games played with "real" chips and money at stake, often with no predetermined end time, with players able to enter and leave as they see fit. In contrast, a pok ...
s. His eleven cashes at the WSOP account for $2,586,105 of those winnings.
World Series of Poker Earnings
worldseriesofpoker.com
*Farha is also known for his TV appearances on Poker After Dark
''Poker After Dark'' is an hour-long poker television program that originally aired on NBC, premiering on January 1, 2007. , High Stakes Poker, and the NBC Heads-up Championship.
References
External links
PokerPlayerProfiles.com profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farha, Sam
1959 births
Living people
Lebanese poker players
American people of Lebanese descent
World Series of Poker bracelet winners
Sportspeople from Beirut
People from Wichita, Kansas
University of Kansas alumni
People from Houston
Sportspeople of Lebanese descent