Alan Goehring caught the attention of the public when he came in third in the $3,000 No Limit Hold 'Em event at the 1997 World Series of Poker (WSOP). The tournament featured such greats as Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Kathy Liebert, Dan Harrington and Donnacha O'Dea. Goehring won $61,845 in the tournament.

 

Goehring finished 2nd in the $10,000 No Limit Hold-Em Main Event of the 1999 WSOP. He lost to Noel Furlong, but took home $768,625 for his efforts. This, coupled with several other 2nd place finishes, including the one in Bellagio's Inaugural No Limit Hold 'em tournament, gave Goehring a reputation for being the player who "could not win the big one" - or being a "perennial bridesmaid," according to Card Player Magazine.

 

But this pattern was broken in 2003, when he bagged first place in the $25,000 World Poker Tour (WPT) No-Limit Hold 'em Championship event of the Bellagio Five-Star World Poker Classic in Las Vegas. This televised event was Goehring's first major tournament win. He had gone up against a very talented young Russian player named Kirril Gerasimov, who had gone all-in with nothing, while Goehring flopped a set of Queens.

 

This was during season one of the prestigious WPT tournament. Goehring took home the $1,011,886 grand prize. The final table also included Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson and Ted Forrest. But after this event, he seems to have gone back to making final tables. In the 2005 WPT €10,000 Grand Prix de Paris, he placed 5th and finished with $89,753. The winner turned out to be Roland De Wolfe.

 

Goehring was born on February 21, 1963, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is a retired junk bond analyst and trader. He only started playing poker professionally at age 37. This good-natured player claims that he plays poker for fun, not money.

 

Howard "The Professor" Lederer, brother of Annie Duke and another well-respected poker player, has made some commentaries about Alan Goehring's plays in his official website. "I am looking forward to sitting across from Alan Goehring again soon," he said in an article. "I may not do any better, but I know I will be thoroughly entertained."

 

Though he rarely finishes first, Goehring's accomplishments in the circuit are nothing to scoff at. As of 2005, he has made over $2.5 million in tournament play, perfectly on par with the achievements of other star players. Goehring lists his hobbies as "stocks and bonds." He is currently residing in Henderson, Nevada.

 

Carlos Mortensen enjoys the prestige of being thought of as one of the handsomest poker players alive. This half-Spanish, half-Danish player sports an intense yet suave look. But besides handsome, poker enthusiasts think of him as an expert bluffer. His play style is frequently loose and cool, but Mortensen himself says he mixes up his style in order to match his opponents'.

 

The poker heartthrob has been called "El Matador." Carlos Mortensen is best known for his performance in the 2001 World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event, where he won $1.5 million. His opponent was Dewey Tomko, a former kindergarten teacher with over 35 years of poker experience. Mortensen also won $1 million at the Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship in 2004. He has collected two WSOP bracelets and over $3.6 million in live tournament winnings as of 2005. Mortensen has also placed in the World Heads-Up Poker Championship, and was a semi-finalist in the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament's second season.

 

Mortensen was born in Ambato, Ecuador, on April 13, 1972, to a Spanish mother and Danish father. He has two brothers and three sisters. His family had farms in Ecuador, but they moved to Spain when he was 15 years old. Notably, poker wasn't popular in Spain, and was even illegal. But it was at around this time that Mortensen began to play.

 

Young Mortensen used to play chess at a private club in Spain, where he worked as a bartender. He came to the club one day and spotted people playing Texas hold 'em. Mortensen could still remember the date: April 15, 1997. Since he was still waiting for his wife, he sat down to play, and promptly lost the equivalent of $100. The loss troubled him, but he came back to play the next evening. And he won. That was when his winner's colours showed; he kept on winning for four straight days.

 

After this exhilarating experience, Mortensen decided to pursue poker full-time as a profession. When he came to America, he did not know any English, but his observant nature made it easier for him to adjust. He prides himself in having acquired his skills more through experience than through reading books on poker. His wife, Cecilia Reyes, also plays poker. They have been together since January 1990. Carlos Mortensen travels frequently between the US and Europe to play in tournaments, sometimes with his wife by his side.

 

David "El Blondie" Colclough is a highly aggressive player. He is best known as an Omaha expert, enjoying top rank in Europe and second overall. His total live tournament winnings exceed $1.65 million as of 2005.

 

David Colclough has finished in the money 12 times in the World Series of Poker (WSOP). According to Colclough, he won a WSOP event in 2000, presumably at the $2,000 Pot Limit Hold 'em event, but he had to give away the bracelet in a deal. It was shortly after this happened that he turned professional. He had a final table appearance on the World Poker Tour (WPT), in an event also featuring Chip Reese and Sam Farha. He took home $103,507 from this achievement.

 

Quite a few great things happened to Colclough in 2003, besides voted European Poker Player of the Year. In November, he won the £1,000 No-Limit Hold 'em event at Midland Masters, Walsall. The win earned him £54,000, or $91,993. He also placed first in quite a few events, including the €2,000 Omaha Cup Summer Tournament, held in Paris, which earned him €66,000 or $75,920. There was also the €400 Pot Limit Omaha event at the Irish in Dublin, in which he won €21,740 or $23,723.

 

2005 was also a good year. In May 2005, Colclough reached the semi-finals of the €2,000 World Heads-Up Championship. He earned €20,000 in the event. He was also inducted into the European Poker Players Hall of Fame at the age of 41, making him the youngest inductee of all time.

 

Colclough was born on March 4, 1964 in Carmarthan, South Wales, to a Welsh Mother and an English father. He played a lot of poker as a child during family weekends in Stoke-on-Trent. While he was taking his A levels, he was warned and detentioned twice for playing poker in the common room. Undaunted, he proceeded with his education, eventually getting a BEC/TEC qualification in Information Technology.

 

While working in the IT industry he found employment in the Post Office, the National Health Service, the Inland Revenue and Fujitsu. He gave up his IT career when he saw that the demanding hours were getting in the way of playing poker. Professional poker had always worked well for Colclough, although he hit a spot of bad luck in an investment; he had put in most of his winnings, savings and time on a failing night club, and ended up almost broke before he closed it down. Fortunately, that was also when his life at the poker circuit went on high gear.

 

He has one daughter named Sian from his ex-wife Anna. David Colclough and his wife Rhowena live in an apartment in Birmingham.

 

Howard Lederer, also known as the "Professor," stands out in the poker scene because of his even temper and mild-mannered approach to the game. At the poker table Howard Lederer is calm, steady, remarkably self-assured. His long history of wins proves that his analytical play style is effective enough for champions.

 

Howard Lederer is also known for his vicious competitive streak. He plays mostly in large tournaments and high stakes games. He has won two World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets and two World Poker Tour (WPT) titles as of 2004. His titles include first in the 2003 Party Poker Million Limit Hold 'em, first at the Bellagio's World Poker Classic No Limit Holdem and third at the Bellagio for Omaha Hi Lo. Besides playing in tournaments, Lederer also works on poker-related projects. He has also made an instructional poker video called "Secrets of No Limit Hold 'em." He runs the Howard Lederer Poker Fantasy Camp. He also co-hosts a tournament poker show for Fox.

 

Lederer came from a family of scholars and gamesmen. His father, Richard Lederer, a writer and linguist, had taught at St. Paul's School in New Hampshire. Howard's sister, Katy Lederer, wrote a book about the Lederer family, titled "Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers." As it happens, Lederer's first love was chess. After high school he moved to New York in order to attend Columbia University. But he had dropped out of college, intending to become a professional chess player. Somehow, he found his way to the poker tables, and after a run of beginners' bad luck, he quickly evolved into the formidable player that he is today.

 

However calm he seems to be at the boards, Lederer has shown that he, too, can be indignant. He seems especially annoyed with players who dispense insults without a care. This makes him not unlike a scholarly gentleman expressing disdain for the rough and uncouth, and unfortunately, this makes him vulnerable to controversy. Lederer has publicly criticized Daniel Negreanu for making inappropriate comments about Annie Duke. He also refused to shake hands with infamous heckler Tony Guoga at the end of the 2003 World Poker Tour (WPT) Grand Prix de Paris.

 

The Professor appears to lead a spartan, scholarly lifestyle, though the fun-loving gambler in him sometimes wins over. Though a long-time vegetarian, he once accepted a $10,000 proposition bet that he could eat a cheeseburger. Howard Lederer is living with his wife Suzie, his son Matti, and their three dogs in Las Vegas, Nevada.

 

In poker or in life, Phil Gordon plays big. Gordon has won nearly $1.1 million in poker tournaments since 2001. On that year, he finished fourth in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) championship event where he won $400,000. He also landed a spot on the Travel Channel documentary ("Inside the World Series of Poker").

 

The following year, Phil Gordon made two final tables, finishing sixth in Pot-Limit Hold 'em, and third in Omaha 8/Better. He also won the Pro Division of the World Poker Tour (WPT) inaugural tournament in Aruba. Then he lost to the winner of the amateur division, Juha Helppi.

 

In 2003, sports journalism became especially attractive to Gordon. He provided expert analysis for the WSOP Championship Event for Binion's live Internet broadcast, as well as daily reports for a national radio audience. And in March 2004, he knocked out two players at once to conquer the WPT's "Bay 101 Shooting Stars" tournament. One of two said players was Chris Moneymaker, whose Cinderella run in the 2003 WSOP has made him an overnight poker sensation.

 

At the age of 15, Gordon reached the finals of the National Merit Scholarship. Phil graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a degree in Computer Science before the age of 20. Gordon began his working career in 1989, immediately after graduation, when Lockheed Missiles and Space recruited him fresh off campus.

 

Barely two years later, entrepreneur Herb Madan drew Gordon in to become software architect of his start-up company, Netsys Technologies at Palo Alto in California. Thanks to the boom in LAN and WAN market, the company was eventually purchased lock, stock and barrel by Cisco Systems for $95 million, making Phil Gordon a rich man overnight.

 

Gordon retired early and began his trek across six continents and fifty countries. He has swum with the Great White Sharks off the island of Zanzibar, climbed the almost half-a-kilometre high Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, covered 20,000 kilometres in a Land Cruiser in Australia... to make things brief, he has lived the king-sized life that many have only dreamed about.

 

Five years later, Phil Gordon settled in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. At the time, poker was an up and rising sport, and the media glitz caught Gordon's fancy. He brushed up on the basics and plunged right in, his nonchalant play style immediately making him a memorable and formidable player.

 

Gordon is also a member of the infamous group of energetic young poker players called the "Tilt Boys." Some of the Tilt Boys' escapades are featured in their homepage (http://www.tiltboys.com). Gordon and a few of the other Tilt Boys coordinated on the design and software that was eventually used by the website FullTiltPoker.com

 

Phil Gordon has written three books on poker. A tip booklet he wrote for Celebrity Poker Showdown is now sold as a fundraiser for the Cancer Research and Prevention Organization, a charity he has supported since his Ultimate Sports Adventure fundraising tour in 2003-04.

 

With unprecedented growth in the game came many changes. The Horseshoe venue - home of some of the major WSOP tournaments for many years was sold off in 2004, and Harrah's Entertainment acquired the rights to the World Series of Poker. Fittingly, the world's largest gaming company was now in charge of poker's biggest spectacle. The takeover could not have come at a better time. In 2005, the WSOP moved to the cavernous RIO All-Suites Casino and Hotel. More gaming space meant that more tournaments could be added to the schedule. "Build it and they will come" became the corporate mantra. And they did. Thousands of players flooded into Las Vegas in subsequent years, wildly exceeding even the most optimistic projections for turnout and prize money.

 

By 2006, the World Series of Poker was comprised of 45 tournaments, all awarding gold bracelets to the winners. Well over $100 million in prize money was won, making the WSOP the richest event in all of sports. Jamie Gold overcame the largest field in poker history when he defeated 8,772 fellow players and won $12 million as the top prize last year, surpassing the payout of events such as Wimbledon, The Masters, and the Kentucky Derby - combined.

 

The World Series has also expanded its reach beyond Las Vegas, to nearly a dozen casinos spread throughout the United States. The newly-formed World Series of Poker Circuit allowed poker players nationwide the opportunity to participate in poker's greatest tradition.

 

Big corporations also took notice. What was once an untouchable subculture largely rejected by potential advertisers and business partners has suddenly become a highly- desirable target demographic. Beer companies, auto makers, and other mainstream businesses are now eager to attach themselves to the success story that is the World Series of Poker. Incredibly, the next thing on the horizon for the World Series might be yet another boom.

 

The World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) is the first expansion of the World Series of Poker in series history. In September 2007, the first WSOP championship events outside of Las Vegas, complete with bracelets, were held. The inaugural WSOPE consisted of three events held in London from September 6–17, 2007. The main event, a GBP 10,000 buy-in no-limit hold 'em tournament, was won by Norwegian online prodigy Annette Obrestad on the day before her 19th birthday. This made her the youngest person ever to win a WSOP bracelet, a record that cannot be broken in the Las Vegas WSOP under current laws because the minimum legal age for casino gaming in Nevada is 21. Obrestad could play in the WSOPE because the minimum age for casino gaming in the United Kingdom is 18. While no definitive plans have been announced, WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack has indicated that in the next one to three years that other venues may start holding WSOP events. Two locations that have been mentioned as possible expansion sites are Egypt and South Africa, and the World Series of Poker Africa was ultimately launched in South Africa in 2010. However, it is currently treated as a WSOP Circuit event, with no bracelets awarded. The next expansion of the WSOP that included bracelet events was ultimately to Australia.

 

In 2010, the WSOP expanded overseas once again, only this time to Gauteng, South Africa. Although the 2010 event was part of the WSOP Circuit, winners did not earn a gold ring or standing for the WSOP Circuit National Championship, both of which were common for other circuit events. This policy changed in 2012. The WSOPA did not occur in 2011 but would come back in 2012.

 

The WSOPE moved from London to Cannes, France in 2011. At that time, the buy-ins and payouts changed from being fixed in pounds to euros. The event moved again in 2013, this time to the Paris suburb of Enghien-les-Bains.

 

In November 2013, it was announced that the WSOPE would in the future alternate with the World Series of Poker Asia Pacific (WSOP APAC), which launched in 2013. The WSOPE will now be held only in odd-numbered years, with WSOP APAC conducted in even-numbered years.

 

On April 30, 2012, the WSOP and Australian casino Crown Melbourne jointly announced the creation of the World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific (WSOP APAC). The first edition of the event was held at Crown's Melbourne Casino from April 4–15, 2013 and featured five bracelet events in the series.

 

In 2015, the WSOP International Circuit was launched, with rounds in Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa. The winners of each tournament join the WSOP Circuit winners to play the WSOP Global Casino Championship. The International Circuit has expanded to 13 tournaments for the 2017/18 season. And with the 2016/17 WSOP champ being a mere 25 year old youngster - Scott Blumstein, the future of the game looks to have a long life ahead of it, yet.

 

But some critics believe poker's popularity may have peaked. Some people think the World Series of Poker can't possibly get any bigger. A few words of advice: Based on its long and rich history, don't bet against it.