A very successful businessman, an excellent poker player enshrined to the Poker Hall Of Fame, one of the founders of World Poker Tour show… He achieved everything, are there any ambitions left? Indeed! Here is one of them: “To be shot by a jealous husband at the age of 95”.
Successful in everything Lyle Berman succeeds in everything he does. He joined his dad’s company. Leather became popular then, and with Lyle’s leadership, the company opened 27 leather stores. In 1979 he sold the company but remained its manager and expanded the business to 200 stores. In 1988 he quit the job and not long after it he founded the Grand Indian Casinos in Minnesota. In 1998, Grand Casinos merged with Hilton (owners of such properties as Caesars Palace and Bally’s) to form Park Place Entertainment, the largest casino company in the world with 39 properties. In April 1996, he received the Gaming Executive of the Year Award. In 2003 Berman together with film producer Steven Lipscomb and former Disney executive Audrey Kania founded the World Poker Tour tournament. Now he serves as the Chairman of the Board for the World Poker Tour, which is a subsidiary of Lakes Entertainment. Combining Poker And Business Lyle Berman began playing poker at age 10. He is a brilliant player who prefers high-stakes games. Pot-limit Omaha and No-Limit Hold’em are his favorite games. He does not play many tournaments because he says he has no patience for them. However, he is a three-time winner at the World Series of Poker (Limit Omaha — ‘89, No-Limit Hold’em — ‘92, and Deuce-To-Seven Draw — ‘94). He also has finished second at the WSOP four times. Now Berman resides in Plymouth, Minnesota with his wife and four children. He continues successfully combining poker and business careers and does not see much difference between these two spheres of his life. “To succeed at either (business and poker), you need to process information, maintain discipline, and recognize that all decisions matter,” he says. “Poker results usually occur within 30 seconds, but in business, they may take years. Nevertheless, there is a ramification for every decision.”
