If you managed to catch poker players on TV, you’ve seen players wearing straight faces trying to trick their opponents into making mistakes for the big bucks. Seeing high-stakes poker being played might have convinced you to try online poker.
After a couple of games, you may have walked away with more Pesos in your account. You also possibly burned through your gambling fund after playing against great online poker players.
In your irritation, you probably thought these players wouldn’t make huge money playing poker if they tried. The professional scene is hard to enter, you’d think.
That thought is farther from the truth, however. OKBET’s online gambling team will be the first to tell you that poker is easy for amateur players to enter. As long as you know how to play, you can develop a sense that will help you quickly rise through the ranks.
This piece will list poker players who made their name through online poker. While these players got their start in online competitions, they eventually played well enough that they began competing in some of the most prestigious poker tournaments.
Ben Sulsky
You may not have seen Ben Sulsky at a WSOP event, but he’s widely considered as one of the world’s best online poker players. He built a reputation by starting his poker career in online freeroll tournaments.
While he infamously lost $1200 after depositing a $3000 bankroll, he immediately doubled down and never lost more than what he deposited ever since.
He’s an unfamiliar player for live poker followers, but his career live winnings of $1,732,683 showcase his skill in the game. He simply prefers playing online tournaments, where he already won $5.5 million on his PokerStars account.
There’s no doubt that he’s one of the best poster boys for online poker, though. The fact that he won at least a million in live tournaments shows how good he is as a player.
Bertrand Grospellier (ElkY)
If you’re looking for a genuine online poker player that successfully crossed over to the live game, fewer examples match Bertrand Grospellier.
He first made his name online through StarCraft, the first game with an esports scene that defined the industry over the next two decades. He succeeded in an environment dominated by elite Korean talents, with his shining achievement of finishing second in the 2001 World Cyber Games.
After retiring from the game, he shifted to poker, making a killing in online tournaments in the process. He won three World Championship of Online Poker bracelets, two in 2009 and one in 2011.
It didn’t take long for him to enter the live scene, where he became a multi-millionaire playing in high-stakes poker tournaments. He most notably won the 2008 World Poker Tour and took home a $1.4 million prize.
Dan Cates
At some point in their lives, avid poker players dreamt of quitting their day jobs and playing high-stakes tournaments professionally. These poker fans will find Dan Cates as an inspirational person as they cash in on online poker tournaments.
Cates was pursuing an Economics degree at the University of Maryland and was an introverted person who struggled at winning games before finding his groove online. While he started at the $0.25/$0.50 level, he soon climbed up the ranks to play high-stakes tables.
When he started playing live, he struggled to translate his online game to live poker tables. However, Jungleman eventually won more tables, which resulted in a successful pro career. He has $12.3 million in career live winnings and is considered one of the most entertaining players in the world.
While some of his most recent antics rubbed people the wrong way, it’s undeniable that he’s a great success story for poker enthusiasts.
Di Dang
When you think of happy endings involving poker, you’d usually think it’s a situation like Cates. You imagine someone getting rich and completely changing their lives because of a hobby they enjoyed doing.
Poker fans won’t find this with Di Dang. Poker vets will recognize the name: he was one of the hottest names in online poker, after all.
Di, alongside his brother Hac, completely changed their lives while pursuing engineering degrees at the University of Virginia. They became enthralled with online poker and turned professional after graduating from college.
He and his brother won plenty of online tournaments by seriously studying the game and exhibiting superb tilt control. They paid off their student loans, put their siblings through college, buy cars for their parents, and buy a compound for the entire family.
His career live earnings are minuscule, but he made more than $7 million playing online poker. He and his brother have since retired from the game and are now restauranteurs.
What Will Online Poker Look Like?
These success stories probably got your blood pumping to play some online poker. However, it’s understandable if you asked yourself if it’s even a pursuit worth chasing.
If you want to improve your bluff-calling skills, online is the perfect environment to sharpen them. Amateurs can match up against some of the world’s best if they’re good enough, and these can sharpen their strategies.
Moreover, the online poker scene is also growing. The pandemic may have boosted its popularity, but the four people mentioned above show that it’s a great place to start your poker career.
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