Phil Gordon is a professional poker player, author, and commentator, based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Born in 1970 and originally from Texas, Gordon is a former National Merit Scholar and child prodigy who started taking college classes at age 15 and graduated from college at age 20, graduating from Georgia Tech with a degree in computer science in 1991. Before graduating he took a year off from school for to play professional bridge. He has won two national bridge competitions.
After college he worked on artificial intelligence projects for the military and took another job writing software at Lockheed. Sometime later, Gordon joined start-up Netsys Technologies as their first hired employee. In 1996, Netsys was acquired by Cisco Systems during the Internet stock bubble for $96 million, making Gordon a millionaire. In 1997 he retired from the high-tech industry and spent a few years traveling around the world to learn about different cultures, as well as to play poker professionally.
The 6 foot 9 inch tall Gordon began playing poker for pennies at age 7 against his aunt. He started playing more seriously in low-limit poker games while still at his software job.
Gordon first entered the WSOP Main Event in 2001 and finished 4th, winning $399,610. In 2002, he made two more WSOP final tables, finishing 6th in the $2,000 Pot Limit hold 'em event and 3rd in the $2,500 Omaha Hi/Lo Split event. He made more final tables in 2005, 2007, and 2009.
In 2002, Gordon won the professional division of the first UltimateBet Aruba tournament, before losing the final championship to the amateur division's winner, Juha Helppi. In March 2004 Gordon knocked out two players at once to win the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars tournament, winning $360,000.
On Thanksgiving Day 2006, Gordon won the Full Tilt Poker Poker Championship, defeating Roland De Wolfe heads-up to win the $600,000 prize.
Gordon has been a commentator for many poker broadcasts, including Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown for seven seasons, before stepping down in 2006, the 2003 WSOP Championship Event for Binion's live Internet broadcast, and ESPN's live pay per view broadcast of the final table of the WSOP main event in both 2006 and 2007.
Gordon has written three books on poker, including "Poker: The Real Deal", "Phil Gordon's Little Green Book: Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Hold 'em", and "Phil Gordon's Little Blue Book: More Lessons and Hand Analysis in No Limit Hold 'em". He has released an instructional DVD, "Expert Insight: Final Table Poker". Gordon has also written for poker magazines, and hosts a poker podcast for ESPN.com.
Gordon appeared in the 2008 film, The Grand, a mockumentary about an annual Texas Hold 'Em Poker Tournament in Las Vegas. Gordon played himself and had a major role as the commentator of the televised tournament.
Gordon was first taught poker by his aunt, who died of liver cancer. He is on the Board of Directors for the Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation, for which he is an active fundraiser. In 2003 he and a friend traveled in an RV to major sporting events in the U.S. to raise awareness and money for cancer. They also came up with the idea for a new charitable organization, "Bad Beat on Cancer", a program that asks World Series of Poker participants to pledge 1% of any winnings to cancer research. Bad Beat on Cancer has raised over $2 million for cancer prevention research.
As of 2008, Gordon has 15 WSOP cashes and total live tournament winnings exceeding $1,700,000.
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