Brian Townsend

Brian Townsend is an American professional poker player, currently residing in Santa Barbara, California.

Townsend is largely known for his success playing no limit hold ‘em and pot-limit omaha at Full Tilt Poker, playing under the nickname ’sbrugby.’ Townsend began playing online poker at $0.50/$1.00 blinds but gradually moved up in stakes, eventually becoming a regular player in some of the highest stakes games online. He posts regularly on Two Plus Two Publishing forums under the name aba20. Although better known to be a heads up and short handed specialist online, he has participated in several live tournaments, including an in the money finish at a World Poker Tour no limit hold ‘em event, and making a final table at a World Series of Poker circuit event. His total live tournament winnings exceed $35,000.

He appeared on season 3 of GSN’s High Stakes Poker, sitting with over $700,000.

He is also a co-owner and lead instructor for CardRunners.com, an online instructional website where he posts instructional videos and writes about his daily life and poker experiences in a blog.

He is featured on the front cover of the August/September 2007 issue of Cardplayer (Vol. 20, No. 17: publ. August 29, 2007).

He played Lock for the UCSB Rugby Team and was one of the best players Santa Barbara has ever seen. His rare combination of speed, strength, and on-field leadership led to UCSB’s clenching of the league championship in 2003.