Some regions are blessed to have people with specific talents who beat the odds to stand on the biggest stages in the world. This typically occurs when people within a particular community own a specific talent, and they put a cultural education system in place that hands down methods and secrets for succeeding in that field generationally. In this case, New Jersey has highly gifted poker players.
This region has produced the best talents in Texas Hold’em Poker. New Jersey also hosts the famous Garden State’s Academy of serial winners, which has provided many top-tier poker players so far. Poker has also thrived in this area over the years, and many people want to play it professionally. In this article, we talk about New Jersey’s most famous living poker stars.
Thomas Marchese
Tom is a New Jersey native who started venturing into the poker game early. Thomas Marchese began playing in 2006 while he was in high school. Tom was involved in a $5 game by his friends, and that is how he ended up in poker. While in college, he was the brains behind the term “Kingsofcards” and amassed a $30,000 bankroll by winning the money of other students who paid $50 each at the start of the game. With his winnings, Marchese managed to pay for his college tuition. He also enrolled in poker tournaments to measure his skills with the best players.
Marchese became an exemplary player by 2010 when the Borgata Winter Open began. Since then, he has won many games with rewards amounting to over $15 million. Unfortunately, his impressive resume doesn’t feature WTP and WSOP bracelets. However, that shouldn’t tempt you to downplay his skill because his level of consistency in winning poker games is impressive.
Amanda Musumeci
Amanda represents many women in New Jersey making great strides in poker. She features in this list by merit despite learning poker at 22 years while in college. She was introduced to online poker by a friend and earned $5000 in a few weeks after flipping a $150 deposit. After deciding to play professionally, she strived to study the game from notable online sites like Tight Poker. This site is the ultimate poker guide and includes everything you need to learn in order to excel at this game. Moreover, it also features several helpful poker tools such as Poker Odds Calculator, Texas Hold’em ruleoos, and the best online poker sites.
Amanda also sought advice and guidance from local legends like Matt Stout. After facing elite players in Las Vegas, she created her path to stardom. Although Amanda doesn’t have a WSOP bracelet, she has won over $500 thousand from two final tables and over $800 thousand from online poker tournaments.
Tom Dwan
This player started his career at 19 years and took a short time before making it big in the poker games. At 23 years old, he took over $200/400 tables, participated in several high-profile games, and appeared in popular poker shows. Unfortunately, this gifted player never reached his potential in poker games, as he never got a chance to get the coveted WSOP bracelet, although he was the runner-up in 2010.
Dwan is known for taking risky strategies, especially when playing cash games. He earned a reputation over the years as the most aggressive poker player in history. He often risked large sums of cash playing live cash games and high-stakes poker.
Phil Ivey
Ivey is popularly referred to as the “Tiger Woods of Poker” because he has grown to become a legendary figure in this game. Phil Ivey grew up in Roselle, NJ, and his gift of playing poker was noticed at a very early age. This early start allowed him to refine his craft to become a poker legend.
The impressive poker skills of Phil Ivey became known to the world after he thrashed Amarillo Slim to win his first WSOP in 2000. He got $200,000 and the first WSOP bracelet for his victory. After that, Ivey added three gold bracelets, further cementing his legendary status.
Final Thoughts
New Jersey is the home of several poker players. People here have adopted the culture of playing and watching this game. Many are also focusing on building a career playing poker. Legends like Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Thomas Marchese, and Amanda Musumeci motivate many people to join professional poker. Undoubtedly, New Jersey will continue producing incredible poker players with a global reputation.
About the Author/s
The New Jersey Digest is a new jersey magazine that has chronicled daily life in the Garden State for over 10 years.
