Thomas K. McEvoy (born November 14, 1944, in
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...
) is a professional
poker player, author and member of the
Poker Hall of Fame
The Poker Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional poker in the United States. Founded in Las Vegas, it was created in 1979 by Benny Binion, the owner of the Horseshoe Casino, to preserve the names and legacies of the world's greatest p ...
, 2013 inductee. He is best known for winning the 1983 World Series of Poker Main Event.
Early life
McEvoy was born and raised in Michigan. He was an
accountant, but after he was laid off from his job, he took up poker full-time in 1978. He first learned to play poker when he was five years old and would regularly get in trouble for playing it in grade school.
Poker career
McEvoy's first cash in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) came in 1982 when he finished 6th in the $1,000 Razz event. He won his first WSOP bracelets the following year winning the $1,000 Limit Hold'em event, defeating Irish professional poker player
Donnacha O'Dea
Donnacha "The Don" O'Dea (born 30 August 1948) is an Irish professional poker player. In his youth, he was a swimmer, and represented Ireland in the 1968 Olympics. He was also the first Irish swimmer to swim 100m in less than one minute. His par ...
heads-up to win the tournament,
and later winning the 1983 WSOP Main Event. He was the first Main Event winner to earn his buy-in through a single table
satellite tournament
A satellite tournament is either a minor tournament or event on a competitive sporting tour or one of a group of such tournaments that form a series played in the same country or region.
Poker
A satellite tournament in poker is a qualifying event ...
. His 7 1/2 hour long heads-up matchup with
Rod Peate
Rod Peate is a poker player from Portland, Oregon
In the 1983 World Series of Poker, Peate finished runner-up to Tom McEvoy in the Main Event for $216,000. Since then, Peate has cashed in the Main Event four times: 1987, 1990, 1997, and 1998.
...
was the longest heads-up battle in WSOP history before being surpassed at the 2006 WSOP during the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. by
Chip Reese
David Edward "Chip" Reese (March 28, 1951 – December 4, 2007) was an American professional poker player and gambler from Centerville, Ohio. He is widely regarded as having been the greatest cash game poker player.
Early life
Reese suff ...
and
Andy Bloch.
Since his two bracelet wins in 1983, McEvoy has gone on to win two additional WSOP bracelets. He won the Razz tournament in 1986, defeating
Alma McClelland, and a Limit Omaha tournament in 1992, defeating 1986 WSOP Main Event champion
Berry Johnston
Berry Enfield Johnston (born September 25, 1935) is an American professional poker player. He is best known as the 1986 World Champion, but he has also won four other bracelets at the World Series of Poker in addition to cashes and wins in many ...
. Having played in 36 WSOP Main Events, he has cashed in the Main Event three additional times since 1983 finishing 371st for $34,636 in the
2006 WSOP, 644th for $18,714 in the
2016 WSOP and 430th for $29,625 in the
2018 WSOP
The 2018 World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the 49th annual tournament, and took place from May 30 to July 17 at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. There was a record 78 bracelet events. The $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event ...
.
In March 2006, McEvoy won the third ever
Professional Poker Tour
The Professional Poker Tour (PPT) was a series of televised poker tournaments, spinning off from the World Poker Tour (WPT) television series. It billed itself as the first professional poker league, and was limited to players who have establishe ...
event beating a field of pros-only at the
Bay 101 casino. He defeated a final table that included fellow WSOP bracelet winners,
Toto Leonidas and
Hoyt Corkins
Hoyt Bricken Corkins (born December 20, 1959 in Glenwood, Alabama) is an American professional poker player.
He has three children: Chelsei Corkins, Brittney Corkins, and Ashley Roundtre. Known for his softly-spoken voice and his aggressive ...
.
McEvoy is staunchly opposed to smoking and in 1998, he helped organize the first tournament where smoking was not allowed. There was much reluctance, but the tournament still attracted a large number of players, and therefore confirmed the viability of having non-smoking tournaments. In 2002, McEvoy convinced Becky Binion Behnen to make the WSOP a non-smoking tournament in exchange for giving her son, Benny Behnen, poker lessons.
McEvoy has authored or co-authored over a dozen books on poker with other players such as
T. J. Cloutier,
Brad Daugherty,
Don Vines
Donald "Don" George Vines (6 February 1932 – 17 September 1989) was a Welsh rugby union, and professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1950s and 1960s, and a Heel (professional wrestling), heel wrestler in professional wrestling ...
,
Linda Johnson,
Dag Palovic
Dag Palovič (born 4 January 1975, in Bratislava) is a Slovak writer, former professional poker player, businessman, radio speaker and TV moderator. Since 1 January 2011 until 31 December 2013, he was a member of PokerStars Team Pro, first and ...
and
Max Stern. He is a former columnist for
CardPlayer Magazine and a was a Team Pro representative at
PokerStars.com from 2003-2011.
On May 31, 2009, McEvoy won the WSOP's first and only Champions Invitational, outlasting 19 other former Main Event champions. He defeated 2002 world champion,
Robert Varkonyi in heads-up play to win the tournament. First prize was a classic 1970
Corvette and the inaugural Binion Cup, presented by
Jack Binion
Jack Binion is an American businessman. Binion is the son of casino magnate Benny Binion and worked for his father at Binion's Horseshoe, a casino and hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Biography
Binion became president of the Horseshoe in 1963 a ...
, in honour of his father,
Benny Binion, the founder of the WSOP and
Binion's Horseshoe
Binion's Gambling Hall & Hotel, formerly Binion's Horseshoe, is a casino on Fremont Street along the Fremont Street Experience mall in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned by TLC Casino Enterprises. The casino is named for its founder, Ben ...
Casino, the original home of the World Series of Poker.
As of October 2021, his total live tournament winnings are $3,087,477. His 56 cashes at the WSOP account for $1,391,462 of those winnings. Since his first WSOP cash in 1982 he has at least one WSOP cash in 30 of the last 39 years, the most recent are 2 cashes in the 2021 WSOP.
McEvoy resides 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 ...
and has three children.
World Series of Poker Bracelets
Bibliography
*''How to Win at Poker Tournaments'' (1985)
*''Championship No-limit and Pot-limit Hold'em: On the Road to the World Series of Poker'' (1997)
*''Championship Stud: 7-Card Stud, Stud/8, Razz'' (1998)
*''Championship Omaha: Omaha High-Low, Omaha High and Pot-Limit Omaha'' (1999)
*''Championship No Limit & Pot Limit Hold 'Em'' (The Championship Series) (2004)
*''Championship Tournament Poker'' (The Championship Series) (2004)
*''Beat Texas Hold'em'' (2004)
*''Championship Hold'em Tournament Hands: A Hand By Hand Strategy Guide to Winning Hold'em Tournaments'' (The Championship Series) (2005)
*''Win Your Way Into Big Money Hold'em Tournaments: How to Beat Casino and Online Satellite Poker Tournament'' (The Championship Series) (2005)
*''Championship Omaha'' (The Championship Series) (2005)
*''How to Win No-Limit Hold'em Tournaments'' (2005)
*''Championship Hold'em Satellite Strategy'' (The Championship Series) (2007)
*''No-Limit Texas Hold'em: The New Players Guide to Winning Poker's Biggest Game'' (2009)
*''Championship Table: At the World Series of Poker (1970-2007)'' (The Championship Series) (2009)
References
External links
Hendon Mob tournament resultsWSOP Player ProfileLas Vegas and Poker Blog Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:McEvoy, Tom
1944 births
Living people
American poker players
World Series of Poker bracelet winners
World Series of Poker Main Event winners
Super Bowl of Poker event winners
American gambling writers
American male non-fiction writers
People from Grand Rapids, Michigan
Poker Hall of Fame inductees