Kenna James
February 4, 2008
“Cowboy” Kenna James (born December 18, 1963 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American professional poker player who currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
James has finished in the money at twelve World Series of Poker events as of 2006. Of these, the only final table appearance was 4th place in the 2003 $2,500 no limit Texas hold’em event, for which he won $36,140.
James was the only player to win two satellite tournaments for the first season of the Ultimate Poker Challenge. He was eliminated from the semi-finals by Jennifer Harman when his pocket Kings ran into pocket Aces.
In August 2005, James finished in second place behind Alex Kahaner at the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker $5,000 No Limit hold ‘em tournament, earning a $588,210 prize.
In March 2006, James finished second to Mike Schneider in the fifth annual PartyPoker Million Cruise. James received $700,000 for this finish.
His most recent victory came in February 2006 at the LA Poker Classic when he won $242,251 playing no limit hold ‘em.
James is married to fellow poker professional Marsha Waggoner. He works with the Screaming Eagle Poker League and The Wounded Warrior Project. He donates 1% of all his tournament winnings to the Wounded Warrior Project in the name of the Screaming Eagle Poker League, and in 2006 he hosted a charity poker tournament that raised $70,000 for the organization.
As of 2007, his total live tournament winnings exceed $2,900,000.
Jeff Shulman
February 4, 2008
Jeff “Happy” Shulman (born February 18, 1975 in Seattle, Washington) is the editor of Card Player Magazine, and an American poker player, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is the son of Jan Shulman and Barry Shulman.
Shulman finished 7th in the 2000 World Series of Poker (WSOP) $10,000 no limit Texas hold’em main event, winning $146,700 after losing two big pots to eventual winner Chris “Jesus” Ferguson. He also finished in the money of the same event at the 2003 (31st place).
Shulman has cashed in several other WSOP and World Poker Tour (WPT) events. He also won a tournament in the Ultimate Poker Challenge’s first season, and made the final table of that season’s grand final, won by James Van Alstyne.
In 2006, Shulman appeared on Poker Superstars III finishing in the Elite Eight.
As of 2007, his total live tournament winnings exceed $1,100,000.
Shulman is married to Christy Devine and the couple is expecting their first child, Elliot Rainier Shulman in September 2007.
Jeff’s older brother, Michael D. Shulman is a writer, photographer, and philanthropist; also based in Las Vegas.
David Anthony Williams
February 4, 2008
David Anthony Williams (born June 9, 1980 in Arlington, Texas) is a professional of poker and Magic: The Gathering player. He was a student at Princeton University and studied Economics at Southern Methodist University and attended the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, an early entrance college program.
Magic
His initial foray into Magic’s Pro Tour came in the late 1990s. He had already won over $30,000 playing Magic when he made the cutoff for the final day of competition of the 2001 World Championships in Toronto. However, he was disqualified without prize for marked cards because three of his four Accumulated Knowledge cards were bent more than the other cards in his deck, making them easier to cut to when Williams cut his own deck after his opponent shuffled it. The tournament’s judging staff determined that the bending was not accidental and that Williams had cheated based on two criteria:
- Each time Williams cut his deck as part of pregame shuffling procedure, a copy of Accumulated Knowledge was on top.
- The judges were able to cut his deck to a copy of Accumulated Knowledge each time they tried.
Williams admitted that the cards were marked but disputed the determination that he cheated by marking them intentionally. Williams was suspended by the DCI from sanctioned Magic: The Gathering tournaments for one year.
During this suspension, Williams started to play high-stakes Texas hold ‘em, especially on the Internet. He made a successful comeback after his suspension was finished, and won money at several more Magic events, though his focus was mainly on poker.
Poker
Williams was self taught to play no-limit Texas Hold’em tournaments. He was then mentored in poker by Marcel Lüske, with whom they both had a mutual friend in the Netherlands, Noah Boeken.
Williams’s poker success was capped at the 2004 World Series of Poker. He won his buy-in through an online poker site and made it to the finals of the main event, ultimately finishing second to Greg Raymer, but still winning $3.5 million for the runner-up prize. His second-place finish is the best ever by an African American in a WSOP Main Event, besting Phil Ivey’s 10th place finish a year earlier.
Four months later, he finished second at the Borgata Open World Poker Tour where he collected $573,800. David Williams became a member of Team Bodog after the 2004 World Series of Poker.
In March 2006, Williams made a second WPT final table, finishing 4th for $280,000. Two months later he made another WPT final table, again finishing 4th.
Williams also appeared on the game show King of Vegas, finishing in third place.
Williams now has his own vlog that offers an inside look at his personal and professional life. The webisodes air weekly on the internet TV channel RawVegas.tv
Even though there is more money that can be made in professional poker than in professional Magic, Williams has said he will continue to play both games, although poker will take precedence. Like many who play both, he has asserted that the two are for different purposes: he plays Magic to have fun, and poker to make money.
Williams won his first WSOP bracelet in 2006 in the $1,500 Seven-card stud event when his K-s 3-h 4-c J-d (6-s 4-s J-h) defeated John Hoang’s 4-c 5-s 9-d 3-c (A-d 8-s T-s).
His mother Shirley Williams often attends poker events in which he plays, and even competed in the 2006 WSOP main event, outlasting her son in the process. She also played in the $1,000 L.I.P.S. (Ladies only) W.S.O.P. event. and she cashed in 465th place in the 2007 World Series of Poker main event.
As of 2007, his total live tournament winnings exceed $5,650,000.
J. C. Tran
February 4, 2008
J. C. Tran (born Justin Cuong Van Tran on January 20, 1977 in Nha Trang, Vietnam) is a Vietnamese-American professional poker player, based in Sacramento, California.
Tran was born the youngest of eight children and has a degree in Business Management Information Systems from California State University at Sacramento.
Tran has finished in the money at numerous poker tournaments, finishing 5th at the 2004 World Poker Finals and on the television bubble of the 2004 L.A. Poker Classic and 2005 Borgata Poker Open. He also finished 5th in the 2006 L.A. Poker Classic. All of these events were televised on the World Poker Tour (WPT).
Tran has made 3 final tables in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and cashed in the $10,000 no limit hold’em main event in both 2004 and 2005, finishing 117th both years. Tran also finished 2nd in a World Series of Poker circuit event, winning $251,920.
On October 2, 2006, Tran won the main event at PokerStars‘ WCOOP, winning $670,000.
On March 2, 2007 Tran finished 2nd in the 2007 L.A. Poker Classic, winning $1,177,010. On March 28 he won his first WPT title, the World Poker Challenge, earning $683,473. He was also the World Poker Tour’s Player of the Year.
Notable victories include:
- 2003 Heavenly Hold’em, $300 limit hold’em: $74,150
- 2005 Rio Las Vegas Poker Festival, $1,500 no limit hold’em: $97,470
- 2006 WCOOP Main event, $2,500 no limit hold’em: $670,000
As of 2007, his total live tournament winnings exceed $5,200,000.
Dan Schreiber
February 4, 2008
Dan Schreiber (born June 30, 1985) is a pro gamer and poker player from Troy, OH. He currently resides in South Korea.
In the 2007 WSOP Heads-Up Event, Schreiber swept Las Vegas poker pro Mark Muchnik in the best 2 out of three matches at the final table. The first match lasted 79 hands while the second lasted only 11 hands. At the time Schreiber was the fifth youngest player ever to win a World Series of Poker bracelet having done so 8 days prior to his 22nd birthday.
Schreiber is a long-time professional StarCraft gamer. Before playing poker full time, he played Starcraft in South Korea on Team Hexatron as a professional gamer. His nickname Rekrul is well-known amongst StarCraft enthusiasts.
As of 2007, his live tournament winnings exceed $425,000.
Shannon Elizabeth
February 4, 2008
Shannon Elizabeth (born September 7, 1973) is an American actress, poker player, and former fashion model. Elizabeth came to prominence in the 1999 comedy film American Pie.
Biography
Elizabeth was born Shannon Elizabeth Fadal in Houston, Texas, the only child of Patricia Dianne (née Abbott) and Gerald Edward Fadal. Her father is of Syrian descent and her mother has English, Irish, German, and Cherokee ancestry. She was raised in Waco, Texas. In high school, she was very much interested in tennis and at one point even considered a professional tennis career. She worked as a model before she began a career in film.
Career
Elizabeth appeared in several films, including the notorious Jack Frost and Dish Dogs, before being cast in 1999’s American Pie, which was a major box office success. Elizabeth subsequently appeared in several major Hollywood films, including Scary Movie (2000) and Tomcats. Elizabeth starred in the UPN series Cuts until the show was canceled in May of 2006. Cuts and its parent show One on One were one of the many shows not to be picked up by The CW.
In August 1999, she posed for a nude pictorial in Playboy magazine. In 2000 and 2003, she was featured in Maxim magazine.
She also provided the likeness and voice for Serena St. Germaine in the 2004 video game, James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing.
She appeared in Enrique Iglesias’ music video to the song “Be With You” as Enrique’s love interest.
Personal life
Elizabeth was in a relationship with actor Joseph D. Reitman for ten years, including three years of marriage. The couple separated in March 2005, and Elizabeth filed for divorce in late June 2005. Some media outlets speculated that the cause of their breakup was Reitman assisting in a practical joke on Elizabeth for Ashton Kutcher’s MTV television series Punk’d, a year before their divorce, which involved leading Elizabeth to think that she was caught on a sex tape with little known porn star Jeremy Longstud.
Animal Avengers, a non-profit animal rescue organization founded by Elizabeth and her then husband Reitman, is dedicated to rescuing and finding a home for homeless pets, reducing pet overpopulation, promoting responsible pet guardianship and preventing animal cruelty. Among the many fund raising events, Team Bodog raised over $50,000 for Animal Avengers in a celebrity poker night on October 8, 2005. The event was hosted by noted tournament director Matt Savage. Over the past year Shannon Elizabeth has participated in numerous other Bodog-sponsored charity events as well. After the attacks of September 11, which drew a lot of racism toward Middle Easterns across the U.S, Shannon recorded a public service announcement in which she said, “I’m half Arabic, but I am one hundred per cent American. What is going on affects me the same as everyone else.”
Poker
Elizabeth, who describes poker as her “second career” has been called “one of the leading celebrity poker players.” She visits Las Vegas up to three times each month to participate in poker games with the top players of the United States. Elizabeth played in the Main Event of the 2005 World Series of Poker and won a special tournament celebrating the opening of a new poker room at Caesars Palace hotel in January 2006, beating out 83 celebrities and poker professionals to win $55,000. She has also cashed four times in the World Series of Poker in 2006 and 2007, but again busted out of the Main Event early. In 2007, she advanced to the semi-finals of the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship in a field consisting of the top poker professionals before losing to eventual champion Paul Wasicka. Among the four opponents she defeated were three World Series of Poker multiple bracelet winners: Jeff Madsen, Barry Greenstein, and Humberto Brenes.
The online poker-room Mansion has entered into a sponsorship agreement with Elizabeth.
Chad Brown
February 4, 2008
Chad Brown is an American actor, poker player and commentator, based in Los Angeles, California.
Early life & acting career
Brown was born in Manhattan, New York. Brown was raised in The Bronx, where he began playing poker in Italian cafés. He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1990s where he began working in Hollywood. Brown has had some minor roles in television series and films, including Basket Case 2 and Miami Hustle. He also appeared as an assistant host on the game show Caesars Challenge in the early 1990s.
Poker
Brown is the presenter of the Ultimate Poker Challenge television series. He has finished in the money at several events in the World Series of Poker (WSOP), including 3rd in the 2002 $1,500 Omaha hi-lo split event, 2nd to Ted Forrest in the 2004 $1,500 seven-card stud event and 2nd in the 2005 $2,000 seven-card stud hi-lo event. Brown made back to back final tables at 2005 World Series of Poker circuit events, including a third place finish behind Chris Ferguson and Prahlad Friedman. Brown made another circuit event final table in 2006.
Brown also made the final table of the World Poker Tour fourth season Bay 101 Shooting Stars Tournament, where he finished 6th. Brown won one of the biggest online poker tournaments in the 2006 World Championship of Online Poker $5000 H.O.R.S.E. event. He bested 174 other players to take down the $223,125 first prize and a gold bracelet. Brown made the finals of the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, defeating Yosh Nakano, Gabe Kaplan, Brad Booth, Kristy Gazes, and Gavin Smith before losing to Paul Wasicka 2-0 in the best-of-three final.
In 2007, Brown cashed in the money for the first time in the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event Championship coming in 97th place out of a field of 6,358 players, winning $67,535. As of 2007, his total live tournament winnings exceed $2,200,000.
Jean-Robert Bellande
February 4, 2008
Jean-Robert Bellande (born September 17, 1970 in Long Island, New York) is an American nightclub owner, promoter and poker player who has a Bachelor of Arts in marketing from Azusa Pacific University and is now living in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Bellande first gained public exposure during a World Series of Poker circuit event in March 2005. He finished 3rd, behind Doug Lee and Jennifer Harman, winning $210,900. Bellande is noted for his aggressive table banter throughout this televised event. A week later, Bellande defeated John Phan to win first prize at the 2005 Winnin’ o’ the Green tournament, earning a further $148,000.
Bellande has also finished in the money of World Series of Poker (WSOP) and World Poker Tour (WPT) events, and appeared in the WPT Bad Boys of Poker II invitational event won by Tony G.
As of 2007, his total live tournament winnings exceed $740,000.
Survivor: China
Bellande was a contestant on Survivor: China as a member of the Fei Long Tribe, and later Hae Da Fung. Noted was his conflict with fellow contestant Courtney Yates. He was voted out 8th, becoming the 2nd member of the jury. He cast his jury vote for Todd Herzog to win the million dollar prize, which Herzog ended up achieving.
