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
7 years ago21,265BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

The Final Table - Season 1 Episode 5

The 'Final Table' team head to Rivers Pittsburgh to find out just how salty some final tables can be. They stuff their faces to fi...

7 years ago15,048BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

How Many Girls Has Tom Dwan Been With?!

Antonio Esfandiari plays 'Lodden thinks' during an episode of Poker After Dark and tells poker pros to bet on how many girls Tom D...

7 years ago4,548BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

Poker Night In America - Negreanu Vs Esfandiari $100k Showdown!

Daniel Negreanu goes up against Antonio Esfandiari in the biggest hand in Poker Night In America history!

7 years ago5,471BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

The Best and Worst of Jungleman12!

Daniel "Jungleman12" Cates is a good poker player, but when makes him so entertaining and fun to watch is his table talk, table tr...

7 years ago30,106BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

The Final Table - Season 1 Episode 4

The Final Table concludes their tournament from Canterbury Park with the table dwindled down to three, as Phil Hellmuth and Antoni...

7 years ago28,188BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

The Final Table - Season 1 Episode 3

Things get eggs-tremely interesting when The Final Table heads to Canterbury Park, MN! The players will duke it out to decide who ...

7 years ago35,663BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

The Final Table - Season 1 Episode 1

We head to Turningstone Casino in upstate New York for the series premiere of the poker show with a twist, The Final Table. Featur...

7 years ago3,068BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

888Live London - Antonio Esfandiari Makes A Mistake

Antonio 'The Magician' Esfandiari makes a costly mistake against Tom Middleton on the final table of the High Roller Event at 888L...

7 years ago5,594BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

Gangsters & Chicago Poker Cup - Bejan Esfandiari Interview

Merit Poker interview Bejan Esfandari, the dad of poker legend Antonio Esfandiari from the $2million GTD Merit Crystal Cove Gangst...

7 years ago3,443BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

Gangsters & Chicago Poker Cup - Antonio Esfandiari Interview

Merit Poker interview poker superstar Antonio Esfandiari from the $2million GTD Merit Crystal Cove Gangsters & Chicago Poker Cup ...

Live Poker Events, 8 years ago

Esfandiari Disqualified for Public Urination

Antonio Esfandiari disqualified from PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for Peeing at the Table.

Antonio Esfandiari Reddit AMA Highlights

Esfandiari got proceedings underway by starting his thread entitled “I am Antonio “the Magician” Esfandiari, and I’ve won $26 million playing poker. AMA!”

2015 WSOP Esfandiari All-In Moments

Antonio ‘The Magician’ Esfandiari roared this summer at the Rio for for five straight days.

Phil Hellmuth Joins Negreanu & Esfandiari as Poker Central Partners

Phil Hellmuth has signed on as a partner at Poker Central, the new round-the-clock poker TV network that begins airing in October.

Poker Tales - The Magician and The Unabomber

Poker masters, best friends, millionaires and mad men

Poker Week in Pictures: I'll State My Case

Antonio Esfandiari & Jeff Gross - WSOP APAC (magicantonio Instagram)Kitty Kuo Enjoying Australia Her Way (@kittykuopoker Twitter)Bilzerian Being Bilzerian - More Poker Please (Dan Bilzerian

Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandiari to Star in the 'Underground Poker' TV Show

Both Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandiari are great players and colorful characters in their own rights. But you put them together, and we are talking a whole new level of entertainment. All fans of high

Poker Players and ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge started as an attempt to raise awareness about Amyotrophic lateral scleriosis (ALS) or Lou Gherig's disease in United States. The concept was not entirely new but the

Daniel Negreanu Surges to the Top of the All Time Money List

With his second place finish in the Big One for One Drop, Daniel Negreanu has dethroned Antonio Esfandiari from the top of the All Time Money List, and is the new sovereign with $3.5 lead over

Live Poker Events, 9 years ago

Big One for One Drop: 15 Players on the Dinner Break

Despite a big amount of money players had to put forward to be able to play in this event, they were certainly not shy to get their chips in the middle today, as from 31 who started the day today,