Top 5 Ordinary People That Became Famous Because of Poker

Poker is one of the most popular card games out there. The reasons for its popularity are more than clear. Unlike most card and casino games out there, poker is not just a game of chance. Yes, luck is involved. Nonetheless, you cannot play poker without having the necessary skill. On the highest level, a lot of poker success comes down to strategy. As they say, in the short term luck is the king, but in the long term skill takes the throne. That's poker for you. 

Thanks to the nature of the game itself, many individuals have managed to cross the path of being amateur poker players to bonafide superstars, whose name became well known even beyond gambling circles. In this article we're going to talk about five ordinary people who have come a long way from being unknown to gaining celebrity status all thanks to poker. The list will not be too long, as that achievement wasn't done by too many people. Check out those who have. 

Phil Hellmuth

Phillip Jerome Hellmuth Jr is nowadays a celebrity in the world of poker and beyond. Back in 1964 when he was born on July 16th in Madison, Wisconsin, nobody could have predicted that he would go on to win 15 World Series of Poker bracelets. Today, he is by far the best poker player America has ever had. His first success at the WSPO came in 1988 when he won $1,500 after ending up in position No6 at a Seven Card Stud Split game. Being sixth in a big poker tourney was not nearly enough for Hellmuth and he came back with a vengeance the following year and took home the title of a youngest winner ever at the WSOP. His record stood for almost two decades before it was taken down in 2008 by Peter Eastgate. 

What made Phil Hellmuth famous is the fact that he never stopped playing poker. Back in the day he started, poker was not a mainstream sport as it is today. These days, poker players are seen in the same rank as athletes and games such as Stake Poker are seen almost as Esports. During his career, what made Phil Hellmuth famous is the fact that he never stopped playing poker. Back in the day he started, poker was not a mainstream sport as it is today. During his career, Hellmuth has amassed quite a fortune as only his poker winnings ranged above $15 million. Despite being able to remain at the top of the game and amass millions since his humble beginnings in the 80s, Phil has decided to take his business far and beyond only poker. He has become a part of numerous projects such as TV shows and books. With the advancement of technology and internet his name is nowadays attached to different mobile games and online casino software. Among his many projects ventures such as appearance on High Stakes Poker, coaching Fox Sports Network‘s Best Damn Poker Show, and being a commentator on Bravo‘s Celebrity Poker Showdown stand out. 

While the ventures we have above are all amazing outside poker, what really made him a household name in and outside of the game is the appearance on Poker After Dark, where a moniker Poker Brat was created, and that's a nickname he carries to this day. His appearance and behavior both at the table and in all ventures he has taken on have described him as a brat and someone who acts spoiled, but he never allowed his attitude to take the bets of his poker talents, that was the thing that took him to the top in the first place. 

Gus Hansen

Hansen is another good poker player who turned to television to elevate his good name beyond the game of poker. Just like Phil he also appeared on Poker After Dark. A Danish born player, Hansen has shown throughout his career that he can turn his hobbies into careers as he did that with more than one activity beyond poker. Today, he is seen as a brilliant poker player. He was not seen as one back in 1997 when he started his poker career. Back then he was a youth tennis champion in Denmark as well as a famous and top ranked backgammon player. 

Luckily for himself and for all of us fans of poker, he recognized that his biggest talent is playing poker. Thanks to his poker skill Hansen has managed to acquire 3 World Poker Tour titles, a WSOP bracelet, an Aussie Millions main event. He was also the winner of Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament season one. While poker is the game where he made a name for himself and achieved the biggest of his successes, he is not yet willing to let this game define him. Instead, he also remains focused on different athletic challenges, among which boxing stands out. 

In addition to being a good poker player and an athlete, Hansen also stands out with his philanthropy work. He is known as the founder of multiple casinos that have charity work integrated into their business model. In addition to his humanitarian work he also puts a lot of funding into developing online poker gaming software and supports all sorts of new-gen technology which can improve the gaming experience for regular users. If you can say one thing for poker players is that they always reach out for their peers and the industry itself. 

Martin Jacobson

Scandinavians are well known for their poker prowess. Martin Jacobsen, Gus Hansen, and Peter Eastgate are just some of the names that pop to mind when you make this statement. In addition to being an amazing poker player, Martin Jacobson is also a well known altruist. Once he was an established poker player with multiple titles to his name, he turned his name to being the face of the poker game. He did this by becoming an ambassador for online gambling brand 888poker. While today renowned as one of the top poker players in the world, this was not his ambition since his young age. No, he wanted to be a chef. 

Luckily, poker came calling, and Jacobson added his name to the top echelon of poker players such as Hellmuth and Hansen. The first taste of poker success for Jacobson came in 2088 when he took home a third place position at the European Poker Tour. What followed was a second place at the World Poker Tour in Venice only a year later. After these two massive results, Jacobson knew that poker was his calling and he continued raking up participations in major events leading up to a mesmerizing win at the WSOP Main Event in 2014. 

His growth was a steady one and thus he managed to make a household name of himself, and by 2015 he owned more than $15 million in prize money. While he is an active player to this day, the Swedish poker prodigy is not one to hoard all the fame and money for himself. His ventures go beyond poker, and today he is more famous for being one of the most vocal members of an initiative called Raising for Effective Giving. This organization stands behind all poker players and allows them to proceed 2% of all of their winnings to the charity of their choice. 

Chris Moneymaker

A true amateur reaching stardom by playing poker is all Chris Moneymaker is about. Born in 1975, it took a while for Chris to become a household name in poker. For him it all started in 2003 when he won the main event at the WSOP. His name became written in World Series of Poker history as he became the first ever player to get to the main stage by coming through qualification after playing online poker. This is where his Moneymaker moniker was created. The Atlanta born poker player emerged as a dark horse in 2003 after securing his place at the big table by winning an $86 satellite tournament at the PokerStars poker card room. 

It is not often that a literal unknown player arises as a frontrunner to win at the WSOP competition. Moneymaker was not favoured early on, but his skill and tactics were noticed by professional sports handicapper Lou Diamond who after witnessing Chris playing said that he has an outside chance of winning the whole thing. Chris Moneymaker eventually did what Diamond predicted and took home an $2.5 million prize gaining celebrity status overnight.

Today, Moneymaker is a part of the Poker Hall of Fame. His winnings over the years have accumulated and he has earned approximately $8,294,912, with $3,183,521 of that sum coming from his participation in the Word Series of Poker. He is also a well decorated publisher with his book Moneymaker: How an Amateur Poker Player Turned $40 into $2.5 Million at the World Series of Poker garnering a lot of fans, and we're not only talking about fans of poker. 

His story serves as an inspiration to most amateur players to this day. The poker boom of the early 2000s was only possible after an amateur poker player who spent his life to that day as an accountant. For amateur players he still serves as a symbol that it is possible to achieve stardom by humble beginnings as an online player only. When you say to an amateur player today that he cannot go up against the professional players, someone can always tell you about the Moneymaker Effect and you'll know that any of us can take on the big fish at the top stage and go home with a win. 

Mike Matusow

Nicknamed The Mouth, Mike Matusow is an experienced American poker player born in 1968. The California born man discovered the game by finding out about poker through an online video game. He loved playing the online version of poker so much that early in his life he often was treated for strain injuries. His first experience with professional and live poker came about in 1988, when he acquired participation by being on Scott Nguyen's entry card, when he paid part of his participation fee. 

This good deed was paid to him not too long after, because Nguyen won the no limit Texas Hold’em Main Event, and as a thank you he decided to pay $333,333 to Matusow. The two men created history by doing this, as it only took one full year for Matusow to win the same event and take home his first WSOP bracelet. He then went on to repeat the feat on three more occasions adding bracelets in 2002, 2008, and 2013. His winnings from poker alone now stand at over $9 million. 

During his poker career, Matusow was known as a straightforward person both at the table and beyond it, thus the nickname The Mouth. His personality helped him to move his ventures beyond poker tables, and he was rather successful in being a host of his own online video show and a podcast. His big mouth as people described them helped him be heard by the audience with many of them becoming his fans not only through poker. His storied poker career was best described in his autobiography titled Check-Raising the Devil. If you want to get into the waters of competitive poker you're better off reading it. 

As you can see, poker is a magical game. It can create a pathway for many of us from anonymity to stardom in just a couple of hands. With the way online gambling and live poker have been developing. Nowadays it is even easier to become famous by means of poker than it was two decades ago when some of the names on our list were paying the way for generations to come. If you're thinking that the game awaits you and that you can make the most out of your poker skills, the blueprint is already out there. See if it suits you.