Businessmen and Celebrities at the WSOP: Who They Are and What They Do (2)

9 years ago
Businessmen and Celebrities at the WSOP: Who They Are and What They Do (2)
07:26
10 Jul

The first part of this article focused on some of the big television names who took some time off from their busy schedules and came down to Las Vegas to enjoy in one of their favorite pastimes ā€“ poker. Tonight, we continue down this road, looking at some more rich & famous joining the masses on the green felt.

John Arnse Riise

Born in 1980, John Arnse Riise is a well known footballer originating from Norway. The achievement that he is probably most proud of is that, with 117 games for Norwegian National Team, he holds the record as the most-capped player in the history of this national team (e.g. greatest number of games by a single player). He scored 17 goals total during this period, playing mostly the position of the wing-back player.

Starting his career in homeland team Aalesund, Riise decided to move abroad a year later and started his serious professional career with French Monaco in 1998. After early years spent in France, Riiseā€™s debut in English Liverpool came in 2001. This is where he stayed until 2008, with a changeable form through the seasons, but was there for the Liverpoolā€™s victory in 2005 Champions League against Milan.

In 2008, Riise signed with Italian Roma and made a ā‚¬5 million worth transition, continuing to apply his talent to contribute in some of the very important teamā€™s victories. His last engagement saw him return to England, as he signed a three year contract with Fulham in 2011, which expired in May of 2014.

Pokertubeā€™s own Rikard caught up with Riise in Vegas, where he has come to play in his very first Main Event. This is his third visit to Vegas as he is taking some time off, considering his options for a new club. Although Riise enjoys his poker, this is the biggest tournament heā€™s ever played in. He mostly plays online, as there isnā€™t much time for the live poker left with all of his football obligations.

Although Riise was eliminated from the Main Event, it was a great debut for the Norwegian amateur, as he managed to survive whole nine hours, outlasting 1800 players before eventually being sent to the rail.

Talal Shakerchi

Youā€™ve guessed it right ā€“ we are moving on to the businessmen. Talal Shakerchi is the name quite well known in the high-stakes poker community, as high-roller tournaments are his number one choice when it comes to poker. However, Talal is not a professional in the strict sense of the word, as he has his day job.

Just like in poker, numbers make for an important part of Shakerchiā€™s job as the hedge fund manager. For many of us regular people, there is a lot of mystery surrounding this role. The short job-description of the position explains it in a following way: ā€œassets managers responsible for creating investment portfolios to guard against lossesā€, which could be interpreted as - they need to be good with money?

Luckily, we caught up with Talal when he was in a good mode and he was happy to explain a bit more details of his everyday job during the interview. Heā€™s been in this line of business since 1998 when he started his own company and has been very successful, as his net-worth is estimated at around Ā£100 million.

Basically, it is Talalā€™s job to earn the best return possible for his investors, but it is different from the traditional fund management because it is much less exposed to movements of the stock market.

Although Shakerchi only entered poker around 2007 and plays it more as a hobby, heā€™s managed to accumulate more than $1.7 in live tournament earnings, with his biggest score of $656,000 coming from the victory in UKIPT Ā£10k High Roller.

Talal Shakerchi participated in both 2012 and this yearā€™s Big One for One Drop Tournaments, featuring a big $1,000,000 buy in, but could not make the money in either of them.

David Einhorn

Weā€™ve already covered the role of a hedge fund manager, so there is no need to explain it again; all perfectly clear. Itā€™s important to know, because David Einhorn is one as well, only with some more zeroes to his name. Forbes estimates his fortune at around $1.6 billion.

45-year old Einhorn has, much like Shakerchi, started his own company, a long-short value-oriented hedge fund ā€œGreenlight Capitalā€ in 1996 with the starting capital of about $900,000. He was able to successfully grow the fund to where it is today making some significant market plays.

Poker is a passion of his, and 2012 World Series saw him make the biggest score of his career as a player, after taking a third place in the Big One for One Drop, banking $4,352,000 bringing his lifetime total cashes just over $5.1 million. His another significant cash came from finishing 18th in the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event.

Einhorn brings a lot from his professional experience as an investor to the tables. Investment market, much like poker, is a limited information setting, where you make your decisions based on what you know combined with that which you can assume. It is no surprise that someone who spends most of his time thinking in this particular way would be attracted to poker and find decent amount success in the game, even if it is only an expensive hobby.

Einhorn was able to make the Day 3 in this yearā€™s Main Event and will be coming back with a very workable stack.

Paul Newey

Life story of Paul Newey is, in fact, quite amazing. He was not born into riches or inherited obscene amounts of money. In fact, today 45-year old Newey, was about to become just one more number at the employment office when his employer went out of business in 1991.

Left with Ā£2,500 and a business partner, Newey set out to start his own debt consolidation business named ā€œOcean Financeā€. Starting as a small operation, the company experienced enormous growth and in 2006 Newey sold the company to ā€œAmerican Generalā€ for the incredible Ā£200 million. Fifteen years after being nearly broke, Paul Newey had Ā£200,000,000 in cold, hard cash to his name. In 2010 he set up a new investment company ā€œNew Venturesā€ mostly devoted to investing in businesses with growth potential.

As for the poker, Newey is no stranger to the highest stakes games around and he is often seen at the televised tables, rubbing his elbows with the best in the game. Although clearly preferring the more exciting action at the cash tables, he has been known to dabble with the tournaments as well. Newey, too, has played both times in the biggest buy-in tournament in the world, $1 million Big One for One Drop.

While 2012 wasnā€™t kind to the businessman, he was able to survive the cash bubble this year and finish in 7th place which paid $1.4 million. He talked to Laura about his experience coming back to the bubble as the short stack and his overall impressions about the One Drop.

Although putting up a million to play poker for a few days may seem extravagant to most, Newey says it is about proving something to himself and playing against the best in the world is more exciting. Although heā€™s only been playing poker for a couple of years, Newey has been into gambling for a while longer and he came close to breaking the bank of Star City Casino in Birmingham once.

Asian Businessmen

In the poker world, ā€œAsian businessmenā€ belong to a special group. Whether it is because of the seemingly obscene amounts of money they always have at their disposal or because the aura of secrecy they maintain around their personal and professional lives off the felt, the term has developed a whole new life of its own.

Paul Phua (real name Wei Seng) is a rich Chinese investment banker who frequents high roller tournaments and super high-stakes cash games in Macau. Not much is known about his business or sources of income, other than the fact that they must be pretty substantial. He is supposedly one of the founders of Wynn Resorts in Macau.

A 50 year old Phua recently uncovered his online poker alias ā€˜malACEsiaā€™, a frequent visitor of the online high-stakes cash tables., where heā€™s been dropping substantial amounts of money. As for his live results, Hendon Mob has Phua at $2.9 million in live earnings, but it is still a question if Phua is overall winner on the tournament scene.

Richard Yong is rumored to be a billionaire and he is another Asian businessman making his appearances at the nosebleeds cash tables and super high-roller tournaments. Apparently, there is even bigger cloud of mystery surrounding Yong, as there is next to none information available about anything else but his poker efforts.

Malaysian businessmen has accumulated nearly $4.5 million in live tournament earnings, with his best score coming from the 8th place finish in 2012 Big One for One Drop - $1.23 million, although it was just under $240,000 of actual profit.

Although both Phua and Yong played the first edition of One Drop, neither of them appeared this year and, much like everything else about them, it is uncertain why. Money is most likely not the issue for the two, but there have been rumors about them being in a serious argument with the tournament initiator, Guy Laliberte, although there hasnā€™t been any official confirmation for this from either party involved.

Although many rich people love the limelight and fame, these Asian players seem to keep their privacy highly regarded and everybody outside of their inner circle of friends is trying to create an image about them from small pieces of information that appear here and there, but so far they were pretty successful at staying an enigma.


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Ivan Potocki is the editor in chief and one of the lead news writers for PokerTube. His natural flair and enthusiasm for journalism combined with a deep poker knowledge make him an exciting contributor for PokerTube.The experience garnered playing poker professionally for several years and the knowl...Read more

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