Interesting Poker Players You Might Have Missed

We always like to look at some top players that are shaking up poker life as we know it. You might be familiar with some, while you might have to Google the others. We’ve included any specific data we could find, including money won and any final table / title info we could include. Check it out below.

1. Oliver Speidel

This was a guy that we didn’t know, we had to check him out. He hit the scene hard in January, making a huge splash at the Aussie Millions. He finished second in a $1,000 AUD no limit Hold’Em shootout and 6th in a 1500 AUD bounty (no limit Hold’Em, naturally). He came out on top of a 659 player field in the main event. He earned $1.6 million AUD.

He wasn’t done yet — in the spring he hit two more final tables and finished sixth in the Australia / New Zealand Poker Tour Sydney main event, collecting $41,262 in the process. He came in 4th for the Asian Poker Tour Philippines main event, collecting $37,000. All of the five final tables Speidel came into are in Asia-Pacific based events. Poker is truly global, folks — don’t ever feel that you can’t get into the game.

#2, Phil Hellmuth

You should recognize him — he’s already in the Poker Hall of Fame a thousand times over, and he’s earned 13 bracelets in the World Series of Poker.

In 2012, he pulled in $4,293,213 — yes, that number is fully true. He’s definitely enjoying quite the run in poker, and it’s definitely looking like there’s nothing he can’t do. He’s earned 2 titles and pulled off 4 final tables.

He picked up his 13th bracelet when he beat out 420 other players in the World Series of Poker Europe main event. He earned $1,331,031 for that win, and became the first player in history to win both the WSOP main event in Vegas and the WSOP Europe main event as well. What a player!

#3, John Dibella

He pulled off a stunning $1,901,113 close for 2012 — that’s a lot of prize money. The 43 year old won the PokerStars Caribbean Avenue main event, outlasting over 1000 other players to earn $1,775,000. The New Yorker wasn’t finished yet — he hit three other final tables in 2012. He finished 3rd in a side event at the Borgata, then turned around to finish 3rd again in the Foxwoods World Poker Finals for $82,825. He picked up 2 titles and the respect of players all around the world.

We like to talk about players that are taking the poker world by storm to inspire you. Sure, a lot of people dream about being Chris Moneymaker, but the reality is that few put in the effort to become that good of a poker player. Why not make 2014 your year to get in the game? Maybe one day we’ll be writing about YOU!