Antonio Esfandiari
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Antonio Esfandiari has packed a lot of triumph into his 27 years of life on this planet. Before his lightning rise to the top of the poker world, Antonio Esfandiari was a professional magician, and turned 12-hour days of practice into a thriving professional career. Just 21 and not content with that precocious achievement, Antonio Esfandiari next turned his attention to poker and now focuses on making his opponent's chips disappear.
Antonio Esfandiari's poker resume includes one WSOP bracelet, three WPT final tables, and over $2 million dollars in career tournament earnings.
Antonio Esfandiari’s Aggressive Poker
Esfandiari on the web
Antonio Esfandiari: World-class Texas Hold’em Poker Player
Subscribe to Antonio Esfandiari’s newsletter, as well as find poker tips and an opportunity to ask him a question at his official website.
Antonio Esfandiari’s Wikipedia Page
Check out stats and a bio on Antonio Esfandiari at his Wikipedia page.
World Poker Tour Player Profile: Antonio Esfandiari
Check out Antonio Esfandiari’s player bio and stats at the official site for the World Poker Tour.
About.com Player Profile: Antonio Esfandiari
About.com’s player profile on Antonio Esfandiari provides information on his vital stats, what his favorite hand to play is, as well as trivia.
Antonio Esfandiari’s Blog
Keep tabs of what’s happening with Antonio Esfandiari by reading his official blog, “Always Bluff”.
PokerListings.com Player Profile: Antonio Esfandiari
Find tournament information and a player bio of Antonio Esfandiari at PokerListings.com.
Latest on Esfandiari
At the latest World Series of Poker, Esfandiari finished 62nd in the No-Limit Hold’em tournament. His winnings calculated out to $9,708. He also turned 30 on December 7th.
Interviews
Poker Source Online Interview
Poker Source Online sites down with the “Magician” Antonio Esfandiari to talk about how he first got interested in poker, what it was like growing up in Iran and what his favorite childhood memory is.
World Series of Poker Video Interview
Check out a WSOP interview of Antonio Esfandiari courtesy of AOL Video.
The Texas Holdem-Poker.com Interview
Texas Holdem-Poker.com sits down with Antonio Esfandiari to talk about his interest in magic, what kind of struggles he had early in his poker career and how he built up his bankroll.
Poker to Watch.com Interview
Check out an Antonio Esfandiari video interview from Brightcove.com.
Antonio Says
On how got started playing poker and what it was like growing up in Iran:
“My family played poker, but I don’t really actually remember playing poker in Iran when I was a kid. It was mostly here. My family would play a little bit of poker here and there, but even then, it was Iranian poker, and Iranian poker is where you take out all the twos through sixes, so you only play with sevens and higher. The rules are a little bit different, like a three-of-a-kind beats a straight. Anyway, so I didn’t really have much exposure to poker, no, but we were very well off in Iran and life was good...my dad, my mom, and my little brother. I remember when we were at war with Iraq and there would be bombs going off and [stuff] like that every couple weeks. But we lived a good life in Iran.”
On how online poker has changed the game:
“It’s made it tougher in the cash games because a lot of players play online and they play numerous games and they play numerous hours, so they come into the poker world with more knowledge...it would’ve taken them a longer time to learn if they had just come straight to the live game. You have 18-19 year old kids that have played more hands than I have now, you know?”
On his favorite childhood memory:
“That’s pretty strong. I wasn’t exactly the happiest kid because my mom moved back to Iran after we moved here. I didn’t have that many friends. I really didn’t have a great childhood. I did have a lot of love from my family, which was good.”