Zachary Clark

Nephew of the late great poker player Chip Reese, it should come as no surprise that Zachary ended up playing the game full-time for himself. Before he played professionally, Clark actually started a make-shift casino from his house during high school:

"I ran a little casino out of my house . . . we had blackjack and craps. We were legitimate. We had a six-deck shoe and everything. We had the poker table in the corner, with no rake of course. That’s pretty much how it started".

Clearly, gambling was part and parcel of Zachary’s household.

A tournament specialist, Clark began playing competitively online and now has more than $3,400,000 in MTT earnings across his PokerStars (‘nofingclue11’) and Full Tilt (‘CrazyZachary’) accounts. A huge boost to his bankroll came in 2007 when he won the prestigious FTOPS Main Event for a massive $395,905. Winning more than 791x the initial $500 buy-in, Zach got past a 4,500-strong field to etch his name into the history of online poker.

At the same time, he managed to squeeze some live tournaments into his poker schedule and achieved his biggest live score in 2008. Playing the WPT $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Championship Event in Los Angeles, Zach fell just two places short of the seven-figure payday, settling for $281,645 as a consolation prize.

Three years later, Clark got to avenge this loss when he claimed his first major title by winning the 2011 $5,000 No Limit Hold’em WPT event in Las Vegas for $119.068. He now boasts over $1,000,000 in live tournament earnings since his first ever cash back in 2007.

According to the poker forum 2+2, Zach was alleged to have accidentally left $300,000 in cash in the back of a taxi when heading from The Cosmopolitan to Palms Place. Fortunately, the driver handed the money over to the police and the California-born pro was eventually reunited with his money!