Roger Hairabedian

Born in Marseille, the Frenchman Roger Hairabedian is a veteran of the live tournament circuit and well-known by any players that frequent French poker events. He has more than 20 years of experience playing live tournaments and almost $5,000,000 in earnings across the period. His biggest cash came in the 2008 €10,000 No Limit Hold’em event at the Grand Prix de Paris, where Roger took home $653,163 and got past #1 on the French all-time money list Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier to claim the title.  

Roger’s consistent tournament scores have proven that he still has what it takes to compete with the new generation of poker players. Two years on from his biggest score to date, Roger made the final table of the 2010 EPT €10,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event in Monte Carlo. Although falling short of the trophy and the huge $2,200,000+ prize for first place, he outlasted such tournament prodigies as David Peters and Davidi Kitai to finish in seventh. A year on, he finished fifth in the €8,500 No Limit Hold’em Main Event in Cannes for over $300,000, again succeeding in a tough field featuring the likes of Sam Trickett and Mustapha Kanit.

He also has claimed two WSOPE bracelets – both on home soil. The first was in 2012 in the €5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event in Cannes where he slayed two PokerStars pros in Vanessa Selbst and Jason Mercier to win the top prize of $186,030. One year later, he took down the €2,000 No Limit Hold’em event and battled poker aficionado Erik Seidel heads-up and came out the victor with $201,154 and a second bracelet  to show for his achievement.

More recently, Roger has been focusing his efforts on building the poker scene in Marrakech as he promotes tournaments through his social media accounts. Speaking on the subject, he explained, ‘If we do things right, Marrakech will be like a little Las Vegas in a few years where people will come and spend two weeks playing poker non-stop’.

Before his life as a professional poker player, Hairabedian was an elite practitioner of Judo, competing for his country and becoming a European Champion with the rest of his French team in 1981. A warning to any hot-headed poker players out there that play on the live circuit: don’t go letting your anger out on Roger. Even now past the age of 60, he can most likely ragdoll you off the poker table and send you to the rail.