Brian Rast

Brian Rast is a professional poker player and the winner of the first Super High Roller Bowl at Aria Las Vegas. Find his Poker Biography & Videos here.

Brian Rast is a professional poker player and the winner of the first $500k Super High Roller Bowl at ARIA Resort & Casino.

Rast was born in Colorado, but attended high school in Poway, California, where he became valedictorian in 2000. He discovered poker in 2003 after watching the cult hit Rounders. All it took was a few games with friends, and just one or two trips to the casino, for him to be hooked. Once he started reading books and taking it more seriously, he put most of his money and time into poker, quitting the temp job that he had been working. A new identity, “tsarrast,” was created and he began to take the online world by storm.

After making $20k his first summer playing, he was still not convinced that it would be a career path and he continued attending college. The following summer, however, he grew a respectable bankroll and the fall semester of school had barely begun before he simply stopped showing up for classes. At that point, he had a bankroll of $100,000 and felt confident that his future was in cards.

Managing that $100k is largely what is responsible for his continued success. He credits a conservative approach with getting him through the first few years as a professional player without going broke like so many others. He is the first to admit that he was not very good at the start of his career, but by managing his money he was able to continue to support himself while he improved. Even with swings of $100k, he could play in smaller games and keep following his dream. At the start, he played $10/$20 live games and $2/$5 online, but as time passed he moved on to stakes as high as $50/$100 online. Even after getting a taste of high stakes action, no game was too small if it meant that he could keep calling himself a professional poker player.

Upon moving to Las Vegas, Brian Rast moved into the now famous Panorama Towers. There he surrounded himself with high stakes professionals who were working their way up the ranks, including Jason Somerville, Isaac Haxton, and Antonio Esfandiari. This led to what he called a “downswing in my life,” living the party life of Vegas and playing very little poker. When he did play, the results were not pretty unless you were his opponent. No matter how conservative his bankroll approach was, this could have been the end of his career. Upon making a no-drinking bet with Esfandiari, however, he turned around both his life and his poker playing.

Several large cashes came after this change in lifestyle. His total live earnings come in at over $16 million thanks, in part, to his consistent deep runs in the past few years. In 2011 he won the $50k Poker Players Championship, where many consider the true “best poker player” to be decided, for $1.7 million. 2012 brought another large score at the Big One For One Drop, where he came in 6th for $1.6 million. Yet another high roller was put in the books in 2013 at the WPT $100k event for $1.08 million.

Most recently, Rast made a name for himself as the winner of ARIA’s Super High Roller Bowl. He outlasted many of the top names in the game, like Daniel Negreanu, Ben Sulsky, Dan Coleman, and even fellow Panorama tenants like Isaac Haxton and Antonio Esfandiari. At the end, he turned a $25k buy-in satellite into a monstrous score of $7.5 million. While he has three other seven-figure scores on his resume, this was by far the largest and the one that put him in 11th place on the all-time money list according to Hendon Mob.

Brian Rast can be found on PokerStars under the same name.

Read More
8 years ago19,625BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

2016 Aussie Millions $100k Challenge - Mercier Vs Holz Vs Rast

Jason Mercier, Fedor Holz and Brian Rast go to war in a huge pot from the 2016 Aussie Millions $100k Challenge taking place at the...

9 years ago15,600ThePokerAces,

Published 9 years ago

Phil Laak Makes Crazy Move vs Brian Rast

Brian Rast is faced with a huge river overbet by Phil Laak

9 years ago12,078ThePokerAces,

Published 9 years ago

Seiver vs Rast - KJ vs KK

Rast vs Seiver Heads Up on the PartyPoker Premier League.

9 years ago12,033BestPokerVids,

Published 9 years ago

Phil Laak huge overbet vs Brian Rast

Phil Laak makes a huge overbet on the river versus Brian Rast who goes long in to the tank - On Party Premier League Season 7.

6 years ago11,918BDJB,

Published 6 years ago

Jeff Gross VLOG S01E04: High Stakes Cash game talk with Brian Rast!!!

Top poker player and industry insider Jeff Gross is back for episode 04 of his WSOP summer VLOG! Today Jeff continues on with his ...

3 years ago10,022BestPokerVids,

Published 3 years ago

Top 5 Hero Calls

Watch the world's best poker players make the greatest calls you have ever seen. Play the biggest games in the world and rece...

8 years ago9,790BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Premier League - Big Pot Between Rast and Seiver

Brian Rast and Scott Seiver play a big pot heads up in the PartyPoker Premier League

9 years ago9,508PokerTube,

Published 9 years ago

Brian Rast in The One Drop

Brian Rast plays The One Drop. He and Rikard talks about that and also about Football World Cup.

9 years ago8,841ThePokerAces,

Published 9 years ago

Duhamel vs Rast - Premier League 2014

Jonathan Duhamel vs Brian Rast facing during the PartyPoker Premier League 2014.

9 years ago8,294ThePokerAces,

Published 9 years ago

Dan Colman AK vs Brian Rast KK - Premier League

Party Premier League Action from Dan Colman and Brian Rast -They end up stacking off with monsters pre-flop.

Phil Ivey Joins Virtue Poker As Advisor in Advance of Fall 2018 Launch

The "in development" online poker site Virtue Poker has announced that Phil Ivey has joined the team as a strategic advisor.

Rast Challenges Adelson for $2million!

High-stakes pro Brian Rast issued a $2million challenge to Sheldon Adelson in an effort to prove to the ageing opponent of online regulation that poker is indeed a game of skill rather than chance.

Silly Season in The Prop Bet Stakes?

The crazy wagers which poker pros make with each other to pass the time usually die off after the WSOP, but a couple of new prop bets have just come to our attention and it would be churlish not to share them with you!

Live Poker Events, 8 years ago

Super High Roller Bowl Ring for Brian Rast

Brian Rast claimed the victory in a tough field of inaugural Super High Roller Bowl event, picking up the $7.5 million first prize and a custom-made championship ring

The $300Million Woman Taking On The Big Boys

The only female in the SHRB 48-player field took on the best and handed them their asses on a plate.

Live Poker Events, 8 years ago

Top Moments From Aria Super High Roller Bowl

The Aria Super High Roller Bowl was a $500,000 buy-in event aired on NBC and was presented by Poker Central. Review some of the action between top pros.

Online Poker , 6 years ago

Virtue Poker Adds Brian Rast and Dan Colman as Advisors

A projected launch date more than a year away in late 2018 hasn't stopped Virtue Poker from lining up two of the world's top poker pros as advisors.

Live Poker Events, 6 years ago

WSOP Event #2: $10,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold'em Championship

Not only is the $1k tag team back but the first open event of the WSOP is going to be a $10,000 buy-in version.