Tommy Vedes

A pro tournament player that doesn't care much for strategic fundamentals, Tommy Vedes is the first to admit that he makes his decisions at the table based upon his gut instinct and reads. Clearly, his gut has a pretty good instinct – the New Yorker has won more than $4,000,000 in live tournament earnings over the last decade.

His biggest win was a seven-figure score when he won the 2009 WPT $15,000 No Limit Hold'em Championship Event for $1,218,225. To claim the prize, he got past many poker veterans such as Chris Ferguson, Matt Glantz and Prahlad Friedman. The same year, Vedes made two other six-figure scores – final-tabling a $2,000 No Limit Hold'em event in Thackerville for $105,000. The larger of the two was his incredibly deep run in the WSOP Main Event that same year – the tournament where Phil Ivey made the final table and Joe Cada was the eventual winner – finishing in 19th for $352,832.

The big accolades don't end there. One year later, he shipped the EPT Monte Carlo €5,000 No Limit Hold'em Six-Max event for $226,317 – beating the long-time tournament crusher David Peters in a competitive heads-up battle. When the EPT series came to an end in 2016, Vedes had cashed in four other events – once in London and three times at the PCA.

In 2012, he took down his second WPT title in the $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Championship Event at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood - the victory bagged him $779,520 in change. Though he has still not managed to get a bracelet around his wrist, he's made a total of 29 WSOP cashes that amounts to over $757,380. The two WPT titles and epic WSOP Main Event run will have to do for now.

Somewhat uniquely, Vedes has a real interest in exotic birds. His love for parrots in particular is no secret, as Tommy frequently posts videos to his Twitter page handling and playing with them.