Amnon Filippi

New Yorker Amnon Filippi was a latecomer to professional poker.

New Yorker Amnon Filippi was a latecomer to professional poker. Although he was known to play in a number of underground games when he began, it wasn’t until 2003 that he found his calling in the tournament format. This was inspired by his move to Atlantic City where he met fellow poker pro Paul Darden who helped Amnon on his road to MTT success. Between 2003 and 2014, Filippi booked more than $3,000,000 in live tournament earnings and rubbed shoulders with some legends of the game.

A two-time WPT winner, Amnon’s two largest cashes have both come in tournaments that he did not win. In 2007, the American finished fourth in the $50,000 H. O. R. S. E. event at the 2007 WSOP for a huge $586,080. As is to be expected in such large buy-in events, the field was packed with talent and included none other than three-time bracelet winner, mixed-game specialist and esteemed poker author Barry Greenstein. His tournament was cut short by Filippi who was chip leader for a while. Forever the class act, Greenstein gifted Amnon with a signed copy of his book Ace on the River as a birthday present on his departure since the New York native’s 38th birthday fell in the middle of the tournament.

Amnon has picked up six other six-figure scores in his live tournament career. A notable one of these came again at the WSOP – this time thanks to a deep run in the $10,000 Main Event. While his dream of making a seven-figure payday was shattered after he busted in 39th, he managed to get past more than 6,500 other players to earn himself $191,646 and finished ahead of the likes of Vanessa Selbst and Daniel Negreanu.

In October of 2012, Filippi was arrested and charged with conspiring to distribute marijuana following his alleged involvement with a production facility discovered by police in the Bronx. However, he was not sentenced to jail and instead was released on a $250,000 ‘personal recognizance bond’ as reported by NY Daily News. He was forced to surrender his passport and initially restricted to stay within south-east New York. However, a judge overruled this decision after recognising that travel was a necessary part of Amnon’s profession, allowing him to make trips to LA, San Jose, Vegas and Atlantic City. Filippi has not been active in the poker world or on Twitter since 2014 and it is believed that he has stepped away from cards for now.

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