Antonio Esfandiari

Antonio Esfandiari, also known as The Magician one of the best poker players of our years. He is also the inventor of the poker game Lodden Thinks.

Antonio Esfandiari Biography

Antonio Esfandiari was the highest earning tournament poker player ever, with total winnings in excess of $25m up until Daniel Negreanu took that title by winning "Big One For One Drop 2014". A large chunk of this was from his $18.3m win in The Big One for One Drop, besting Sam Trickett heads-up to take home the bracelet.

Esfandiari, is also known as 'The Magician', as he was once a professional magician before becoming one of the best and most recognisable faces in modern day poker.

He is always a funny character at the table, and never fails to provide some top quality poker at the same time. Not many people have a bad thing to say about Antonio for obvious reasons. Antonio started playing poker when he was invited to a poker game when he was 19, during the same time he was peforming magic. It seemed from here on he was destined to transfer his magic onto the tables.

He kicked off his incredibly successful career big time when he won almost $1.4m at the LA Poker Classic Event.

Antonio has a very close friendship with fellow poker pro player, Phil Laak. They have been known to create great TV together at the televised table with their wit and generally likable personalities.

Game invented by Antonio Esfandiari & Phil Laak:

Lodden Thinks

The game of Lodden Thinks spiralled from some joking between the two as to what fellow pro Johnny Lodden while the three were at a televised table during a WSOP event. Esfandiari decided that their usual chat was boring and they needed to spice it up a little, so the two came up with Lodden Thinks.

The rules are as follows:

- 3 people are involved in the game, with 2 'betting' against each other, and one being 'Lodden' (ps. this doesn't actually have to be Johnny Lodden surprisingly.)

- Anybody can come up with a question with a numerical answer, and pose it to the group, with 'Lodden' thinking of an answer.

- The two 'bettors' then start off a bidding war as to what they think 'Lodden' would think. This goes on until one of the bettors declares 'I'm under', which means they take any number under what their opponent has just said, which subsequently means the other person takes over that number.

- 'Lodden' then reveals their answer, and depending on where that number lies in under or over, the winner is declared. What is so interesting about the game, is that it does not matter what the actual answer is, it only matters what 'Lodden' thinks the answer is.

A typical game for the minds of poker players.

Take a look at a Lodden Thinks game between Brunson and Ivey.

Read More
15 years ago118,516

Published 15 years ago

Antonio Esfandiari Shimmy Shamming All Day

Antonio Esfandiari talks to Kimberly Lansing on Day 2 of the WPT World Championship at the Bellagio.

15 years ago7,779

Published 15 years ago

Antonio Esfandiari with Special Guest David Wells

Antonio Esfandiari and his good friend David Wells during Day 1A of the WPT Spanish Championship.

15 years ago6,727

Published 15 years ago

Antonio Esfandiari and Henrik Gwinner

Antonio Esfandiari and Henrik Gwinner on Day 1A of the WPT Spanish Championship.

15 years ago9,993

Published 15 years ago

Antonio Esfandiari - PCA 25K Event

PokerListings.chats with Antonio Esfandiari at the PokerStars.net Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas. He gives us his perspective ...

14 years ago10,764

Published 14 years ago

Esfandiari in London

Exclusive PokerTube interview with one of the biggest names in the business - Antonio The Magician Esfandiari.

13 years ago14,477

Published 13 years ago

Antonio Esfandiari and Jennifer Tilly on Phil Laaks accident

We sat down with Phils best friend Antonio Esfandiari and his girlfriend Jennifer Tilly to hear about the accident from their poin...

11 years ago13,922

Published 11 years ago

Antonio Esfandiari wins $18,346,673

Antonio The Magician Esfandiari just completed the greatest accomplishment of his life by winning the Big One for One Drop during ...

11 years ago15,749

Published 11 years ago

Antonio Esfandiari through to Day 3 of the ME

I guess noone missed what Antonio Esfandiari did about a week ago. A lot of players would find it hard to regain the composure for...

11 years ago10,427

Published 11 years ago

Antonio Esfandiari WPT Montreal

Season XI WPT Montreal Day 1A Player of the Day - Antonio E

11 years ago8,734None1,

Published 11 years ago

High Stakes Living Antonio Esfandiari

Card Player TV takes an exclusive tour of the home of Antonio Esfandiari.

Prop Bets - The Best of The Rest

​If they don’t involve Bill Perkins, Antonio Esfandiari or Dan Bilzerian, they don’t get much exposure these days, but crazy and wonderful prop bets are not the preserve of the ‘Billionaire club’.

Top Pros AMA and You Still Have Time to Join

If you’ve ever fancied chatting with one of the world’s top poker professionals, now’s your chance to do so – with Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth and Antonio Esfandiari all lined up to take your calls.

The Most Insane Final Table We Can Imagine

When it comes to the Main Event it’s the characters rather than the actual cards which tend to live on in memory – so this fantasy final table reflects that, pitting heroes against anti-heroes, with much more on the line than the $10million and the bracelet.

Crazy Prop-Better Bill Perkins Does it Again

The prop bet will see Kaverman swimming 2.4 miles, cycling 112 miles and then running 26.2 miles –and he will have to do it in the average time that actual Ironman competitors do it in, which is just under 13 hours.

Which Country Really has the Best Poker Players?

Many poker enthusiasts find themselves wondering which country has the best poker players in the world and that's precisely the question we'll attempt to answer today.

Who Will Be the First Player to Cash For $100 Million?

Predicting who will get there first is no easy task considering nobody is even close right now, let’s start by assessing the top 5 from Hendon Mob’s all time money list.

Live Poker Events, 7 years ago

Super HighRoller Bowl Special

There’s $15million up for grabs and there are 49 of the poker world’s biggest and best high-stakes players vying for a share of the spoils – and day 1 of the Super HighRoller Bowl from Las Vegas didn’t disappoint!

Live Poker Events, 7 years ago

CBS Will Cover the Super High Roller Bowl

May 29th sees the start of the Super High Roller Bowl from the ARIA Resort and Casino – and with a full field of the world’s biggest and best ponying up $300,000 per head to play for the $5,000,000 top prize

Bill Perkins - The Hedge Fund Poker Player

​The world of poker is a colourful and vibrant arena, where interesting players and characters are never hard to find. One of these, however – Bill Perkins – stands out from the crowd.

Esfandiari And Laak Go Way Back

They’ve made many TV shows together and they’ve played against each other at countless poker tables, in a variety of environments, from the most dangerous underground poker venues to WSOP in Las Vegas and WPT across the USA.