Allen Kessler

Allen ‘Chainsaw’ Kessler is a Philadelphia-born, Vegas-resident pro noted for his amazing abilities to reach the min cash stages of tournament poker, accruing close to 300 separate paydays on his Hendon Mob listing for total earnings of $3,513,191.

Poker as a profession came about rather later for Kessler than for most, the double major in Marketing and Management from Temple University working non-poker jobs for a decade before relocating to Vegas to take up full-time professional play, firstly as a cash game player and latterly in tournaments.

He did however play poker while in college, and also spent time in Atlantic City playing slot machines – something which he continues to this day, often updating his Twitter feed with details of his slot wins.

His remarkable ability to survive tournaments has seen him land 53 WSOP cashes as well as more than 50 WSOP Circuit cashes, along with three circuit rings, the first coming at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas back in 2007.

It was in this year that Kessler was given the nickname ‘The Chainsaw’, at a 2007 WPT Foxwoods Casino event, apparently because of his intimidating playing style – not something he is particularly noted for, his grinder-approach to tournaments often the opposite.

Outside of his playing skills, Kessler has become known for his overly-keen interest in the structures of tournaments, often starting lengthy discussions on poker forums about blind structures, entry fees and other details of tournament play.

He also has a penchant for the other minutiae of a tournament pro’s life, such as casino comps, as well as ‘playing penny slots, trying to take advantage of video poker machines on a jackpot, and collecting food vouchers from players who didn’t want them’, according to his entry in the Fandom wiki page.