Mark "Mickey" Appleman (born July 15, 1945) 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 wa ...

player, sports bettor, and sports handicapper now living in Fort Lee,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

. His poker accomplishments include winning four WSOP bracelets, all in different variations of poker and four top 25 finishes in the WSOP Main Event.

Early life

Appleman was born on July 15, 1945, in Brooklyn, New York, to parents of

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

Jewish descent. He grew up in

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...

, where he was strong in both athletics and academics. He received his

undergraduate degree An undergraduate degree (also called first degree or simply degree) is a colloquial term for an academic degree earned by a person who has completed undergraduate courses. In the United States, it is usually offered at an institution of higher e ...

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pub ...

, where he was a member of

Alpha Epsilon Pi Alpha Epsilon Pi (), commonly known as AEPi, is a college fraternity founded at New York University in 1913 by Charles C. Moskowitz and ten other men. The fraternity has more than 150 active chapters across the United States, Canada, United K ...

. He also earned an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

statistics Statistics (from German: '' Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, indust ...

from

Case Western University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Rese ...

Career

Education career

Appleman later moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked as a coordinator in a

drug rehabilitation Drug rehabilitation is the process of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and street drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, heroin or amphetamines. The general intent i ...

clinic A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambulatory care clinic) is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care needs ...

. He also taught math in public schools.

Poker

Appleman used money he had made from

sports betting Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. The frequency of sports bet upon varies by culture, with the vast majority of bets being placed on association football, American football, basket ...

to fund his early poker career, and he began playing at the

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 pl ...

(WSOP) in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

. He was a regular player at the

Mayfair Club The Mayfair Club was a cardroom in New York City. Originally starting as a bridge and backgammon club, it eventually became "the most touted card club in New York" until its abrupt closing by authorities in 2000. Eolis, Wendeen"Documentary Film Sh ...

in New York City, where he played against some of the now very famous and successful poker players like

Dan Harrington Dan Harrington (born December 6, 1945) is a professional poker player, best known for winning the Main Event at the 1995 World Series of Poker. He has earned one World Poker Tour title, two WSOP bracelets, and over six million dollars in tourn ...

Howard Lederer Howard Henry Lederer (born October 30, 1964) is an American professional poker player. He has won two World Series of Poker bracelets and holds two World Poker Tour titles. Lederer has also contributed to several books on poker strategy and has ...

, and

Erik Seidel Erik Seidel (born November 6, 1959) is an American professional poker player from Las Vegas, Nevada, who has won nine World Series of Poker bracelets and a World Poker Tour title. In 2010, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. Early life ...

. In his long career as a professional poker player, he has won four bracelets and has finished in the money of the $10,000 no limit hold'em main event in

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

(8th),

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

(22nd),

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...

(20th), and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

(9th). In 2008, Appleman appeared on NBC's ''

Poker After Dark ''Poker After Dark'' is an hour-long poker television program that originally aired on NBC, premiering on January 1, 2007.

'' show in the episode "Mayfair Club." The other players were the former owner of the club, Mike Shictman, and professional poker players

Steve Zolotow Steve Zolotow (born March 30, 1945) is an American businessman and professional poker player from Las Vegas, Nevada. He has won two bracelets at the World Series of Poker. He was one of the regulars at the famed Mayfair Club while he lived in ...

, and Jay Heimowitz who won the tournament and the $120,000 cash prize. Appleman finished the tournament in third place. As of 2015, his total live tournament winnings exceed $1,787,000. His 47 cashes at the WSOP account for $1,185,861 of those winnings.World Series of Poker Earnings
, worldseriesofpoker.com

World Series of Poker Bracelets

Personal life

Mickey has a son, Alexander, who was born in 1987.

Notes

External links

Hendon Mob tournament resultsThe Jesus of Handicapping by Michael KaplanPersonal Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Appleman, Mickey Living people 20th-century American Jews American poker players World Series of Poker bracelet winners Super Bowl of Poker event winners People from Long Island People from Washington, D.C. People from Fort Lee, New Jersey 1945 births Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences alumni Case Western Reserve University alumni 21st-century American Jews American Ashkenazi Jews