Phil Gordon: "You Must Be Prepared to Commit All Your Chips"

  Phil Gordon is considered one of the nicest guys of poker. In his 35 he is a professional poker player, poker author and analyst, Celebrity Poker Showdown co-host and a millionaire. Moreover – he has been in more than 50 countries. So who says poker players spend all their life at a poker table?

A Computer Genius&nbsp Phil was born in Texas. He has always been a smart boy. He started playing poker when he was 7. At firs his great-aunt was his opponent. But at age 15 he entered college as a National Merit Scholarship Finalist. At age 20 he graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology with a degree in Computer Science. So he had very bright future and of course he didn’t even think of spending most of his time in smoky poker rooms. &nbsp Phil was doing quite well in the computer industry and two years after graduating he became a lead software engineer and first employee for Netsys Technologies, Inc. He was only 22 back then. Three years later, they sold the company for (take a long breath) 95 million dollars in stock and cash. Guess who took the major part of the money. A Traveler&nbsp After receiving the money he decided to travel for a while. But where to go? There are so many interesting places to visit. So Phil started with buying one-way ticket to Africa. And that was only the beginning. During the nest five years he traveled through more than 50 countries on all the 6 continents. All the time he traveled alone. In Australia, he covered 20,000 kilometers solo in a Land Cruiser. He climbed mountains, rafted in mountain-rivers and explored deserts and wastelands. A World Class Player&nbsp Phil became a full-time player in 2001. His technical background helped him a lot. He finished fourth and won about $1.1 million at the 2001 World Series of Poker championship event. He is not afraid of fierce battles. "You must be prepared to commit all your chips if it's the right thing to do," he says. Now Phil has 2 WPT Championship titles and 1 WSOP bracelet. He also writes poker books which are considered to be very good guides to poker. &nbsp He is also famous for being a co-host of Bravo’s Celebrity Poker Showdown.Related articles:"Poker: The Real Deal" by Phil Gordon and Jonathan Grotenstein