Antonio Esfandiari

How do you make cards disappear or become the youngest poker player ever to win a million dollar prize? Ask Antonio Esfandiari, magician turned poker wunderkind and the youngest member of UltimateBet.com’s Team UB. He left college and quickly became a professional magician. Then at 21 he turned his attention to poker where he rose to the top in lightning speed.

Winning the first poker tournament he entered, a $30 buy-in event at the Garden City Club in San Jose, California, was a sign of more wins to come. In 2004, he won the main event at the L.A. Poker Classic taking home 1.4 million and the $2000 buy-in pot-limit hold'em event at the World Series of Poker (taking home his first gold bracelet). The youngest player to win a televised WPT event, this immigrant from Iran hasn't forgotten his roots. Immediately upon winning the L.A. Poker Classic, he shared his good fortune with those that matter most, his family. Currently one of only 17 players to win both a WSOP bracelet and a WPT title Esfandiari is 12th on the all-time WPT earnings list and had earned over $2.27 million in career earnings to date.

Esfandiari has won five World Poker Tour final tables (only Phi Ivey and Gus Hansen have won more). Maybe that’s why WPT’s Steve Lipscomb calls Esfandiari “one of the most respected and feared players on the tournament circuit.” Being the youngest WPT champ and then winning four more final tables is reason enough for the WPT to turn to this poker superstar to author “World Poker Tour: In the Money” (Collins) released in March 2006.

“In the Money” provides the next level of poker strategies and insights for players of Cash Games, a non-tournament version of Texas Hold ’Em popular in casinos, home games, as well as online. The book is instructive, entertaining, and easy to follow – a must-have strategy guide for poker enthusiasts.

Like many poker players today, Esfandiari’s entrepreneurial ventures are also expanding. In addition to books on poker, he is the spokesperson for Fun Energy Foods Inc.’s exciting new “poker food” kickbutt amped energy ball z- a functional food product which Esfandiari recognizes as “the perfect poker food when playing, long hours at the table. They keep you energized and alert.”

Esfandiari is known as the “crazy party guy” with his entourage of San Francisco friends known as “Rocks and Rings”. True, he loves the nightlife, traveling to exotic locations, dancing, and hanging with beautiful women, but nothing is more important to him than family. Esfandiari is the first to say “I can’t wait to have a wife and kids.” In fact, his secret desire after poker is to open his own restaurant. He almost went to culinary school, but poker became his focus and is for now at least.

So when you spot a crowd of stunned fans standing around oohing and aahing at tournaments, you can go all in and bet that Esfandiari’s in the middle, doing tricks with a deck of cards dressed in Cavalli, or Dolce & Gabbana, and wearing one of his 40 pairs of Oakley glasses. He says, "I love the fact that I can mess with someone's head." You have to be able to mess with people's heads if you play poker and perform magic as well as Esfandiari. But this guy also does it with style, sensibility, and a mesmerizing smoldering gaze.