WHERE ARE THEY NOW? (Ep. 11) – A Look Back at Poker Stars of 2000-2010

Welcome to Part 11 of my series on the history of the poker stars we watched play in casinos and on television, back in the 2000’s. As always, your comments help me compile the lists of who to feature when. Keep those comments coming. Episode 12 is just around the corner.

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In Part 11, we cover a couple of the better voices of poker a couple of those that started playing near the beginning of the boom and one of the best of the former FullTilt pros.

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TIMESTAMPS
Introduction 00:00
Phil Gordon 00:34
John Juanda 04:05
Liv Boeree 06:05
Robert Williamson III 08:43
Jason Mercier 11:02

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Welcome to the channel back in the early 2000s you’d hear a lot of talk about the Phils there’s Phil helmuth Phil Ivy Phil lock each one of them left their impression on the poker world and each one of them still plays today but if you hard pressed to come up with a fourth

Fill maybe you’d come up with Phil Gordon more on Phil in a moment but first I want to say just how much I appreciate the support you’ve given the channel over the last year and a half those of you that have liked videos subscribed to videos watched videos you

Know you’ve really helped help me out and I appreciate all the uh the support thanks the fourth Phil Phil Gordon was born on July 6th 1970 in El Paso Texas Phil’s family moved to Georgia where he excelled as a student he did so well that he attended Georgia Tech as a

15-year-old he left high school after 11th grade to go full-time at Georgia Tech in 1991 Phil received his bachelor’s in computer science Phil went to work for locked but left that job and became the first paid employee of a new Silicon Valley startup called netsis in 1996 netsis was bought by Cisco making

Phil a millionaire just 5 years out of college if you’re 26 and a millionaire what would you do well if you’re like Phil You’ travel and play poker and that’s exactly what Phil did he traveled and he played poker Phil didn’t make much of an impression on the poker World

Until the 2001 World Series Main Event Phil made the final table which was won by Carlos mortensson and included one of the other Phils you guessed it helmuth the stack table also included Mike matau and Dey TOMCO Phil took fourth and for his efforts he made $400,000 the following year Gordon won

The professionals bracket at the ultimate bet Aruba tournament he then went heads up with amateur bracket winner UA helie helie who as we all know later turn pro beat Gordon for the overall Aruba WPT championship in 2004 he won the WPT Bay 101 shooting star defending Chris Money Maker heads up

After that he did well in a handful of Poker After Dark and Full Tilt made for TV type events he dropped off the radar after 2011 and his only hended mob posted result since that time was a 2021 $40 daily buying tournament at the Sahara Phil may be better known for his

Work away from the table particularly his work on television charity and writing Phil was on Bravo’s celebrity poker Showdown for Seven Seasons he left after season was replaced by another Phil you guessed it helmuth I like Gordon on Celebrity poker Showdown you know in addition to his

Doing the poker commentary he was also pretty good at playing the straight man to first uh Kevin Pollock and then Dave Foley poock and Foley are excellent Comedians and you know it helps them to have somebody to set up for jokes and I think Phil did a really good job at that

Phil Gordon wrote five poker books his little green book was very well known in poker circles remember the ran Shambo tournaments during the World Series of Poker that was Phil and Ray first idea ESPN loved it and they put it on you know for several years during their

Coverage of the World Series the winner received their main event buyin but all other money brought in went to charity bad beat on cancer was a charity Gordon and first came up with after embarking on an adventure to visit over 140 sporting events they raised money at

Each event and started the charity for several years the charity encouraged poker players to donate 1% of their winnings to charity as I mentioned earlier Phil dropped off the poker radar around 2011 Phil was part of the team that developed the software for Full Tilt and we all know what happened with

Full Tilt Phil was named in one of the lawsuits against Full Tilt um but was eventually cleared because his involvement was really in just creating the software he wasn’t involved in the business decisions since the end of Full Tilt Phil’s gone back to his entrepreneurial ways he’s a family man

Living outside of Seattle Washington and he’s the CEO and co-founder of prompt. a company involved in texting Solutions seven World Poker Tour final tables five world series bracelets for a time in the 2000s it seemed as if John Janda was on every poker show on television one of the more quieter

Players on the Full Tilt roster of Pros Janda had a reputation as a tough player who let the cards do the talking for him John Janda was born on July 8th 1971 in Indonesia as a kid JN had aspirations to to become a doctor in high school he

Excelled at track and field jawanda came to the United States in 1990 to attend college at Oklahoma State he later moved to Seattle where he received an MBA from Seattle University John took to gambling at an early age like many gamblers a ran in the family John wanted to be a little

Bit more responsible than his father though he became a tournament specialist and had early success in the Los Angeles poker scene scoring many Cashes in 1997 and 1998 his first cash in the World Series came in 1999 in 2000 his career really took off in 2002 he won his first

Of five world series bracelets in the $1,500 triple draw lowball Ace to five event in all he has 72 cashes at the World Series he also won the 2004 professional Poker Tour event at Foxwoods his most prestigious win was the 2008 main event at the World Series

Of Poker in Europe for that win he took home $1.5 million his bigest cash was a first place in the 2017 Triton Main Event in Hong Kong he won just over $2.8 million to date he’s amassed over $25 million in tournament earnings does Jon still play sure does JN is a longtime

Resident of Tokyo he’s a father but he still makes time to play in 2023 he won a Super High Roller event in Vietnam and he played EP WSOP and WPT events John was always one of the good guys at poker he considers Tokyo to be be the best

Place for him to live and he gets to pick and choose when he plays good for him in this series we’ve covered a lot of those that I call brainiacs and that’s a compliment by the way we’ve had Chess Masters back gaming Geniuses mathematicians a few menum members we’ve

Had it all but I’m struggling to think whether we had anyone that was both brilliant and as cool as Liv beree we’ve had brilliant and we’ve had cool I’m just not sure I would put the two together for anyone but live born on July 18th 198 4 in Maidstone England Liv

Says she was a tomboy growing up she was much more interested in playing Athletics and satisfying her competitive nature those feelings changed somewhat before she entered University and Liv became interested in modeling and music specifically heavy metal music she liked what she heard and she wanted to be a

Part of the scene she learned how to play the guitar and she played in a couple bands at University she received a degree in physics with an emphasis on astrophysics at one point she wanted to become a research scientist but that feel went away in 2005 Liv got her start

In poker when she was picked as a contestant on Ultimate poker.com Showdown remember that show Li said she didn’t know what the show was she just applied to be on a reality show she had only played her firstand of Poker two weeks before the show being a brainiac

She picked up the game quickly but not enough to win that time that experience did set her on a course as a professional poker player part-time at first Her First Cash on henden Mob was in 2007 in 2008 she won the lad Brooks poker European ladies Championship 2008

Was also the first of her Cashes in the World Series her meeting Phil helth on that reality show in 2005 helped her out because uh Phil introduced her to some people from Ultimate bet they signed her up and she became a sponsored Pro in 2010 she signed with poker stars in 2010

She also won the EP Sano Main Event cashing for $1.6 million she has several EP final tables which kind of makes the poker star’s affiliation a natural fit away from the table Liv has been involved in charitable causes such as raising for Effective giving a group that encourages poker players to donate

A portion of their winnings to charity how many poker players do you know that have given TED Talks Liv has given several with the most recent being a captivating presentation on the dark side of competition in AI in 2019 Liv left poker stars and said she was done with playing professionally but she

Continued to play a little bit with her last cash being at the WSOP in 2022 want to check in with what she’s thinking about these days she has a podcast winwin with Liv beree she’s also on Instagram and X it’s worth checking out like Phil Gordon Robert Williamson I

Third is probably better known more for his skills as a poker presenter than his skills at the table but that doesn’t mean his skills at the table were lacking oh no Williamson was an accomplished player who just happened to be really good at broadcasting born in Dallas on November 7th 1970 Williamson

Received degrees in finance and real estate from Angelo State University his interest in poker started at a younger age around 11 his father taught him how to play he began a long string of tournament caches in 1994 his first World Series cach was an impressive third place at the 1999 Omaha

Pot Limit event at the World Series his one and only World Series bracelet was in the 2002 $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event in all Robert has 36 World Series caches with most being in Omaha or mixed events his Omaha skills were so good that he picked up the nickname Mr Omaha as

Robert gained exposure at the table his impressive communication skills were also noticed and he was asked to provide commentary on a number of Poker broadcasts Robert provided commentary on poker Royale Aussie millions and was a host for four episodes of The Ultimate Poker challenge he also showed up to

Play on poker after dark and was one of the pros that got a role in the 2007 poker theme film lucky you fun fact Robert ballooned up to about 400 lb and decided to have gastric bypass surgery sometime between 2003 and 2005 he had the surgery he lost 200 lb and after

That time kind of went around and told everybody that he was half the man he used to be bad joke Robert and his wife started Robert Williamson the third designs which created poker themed jewelry uh that lasted a little while but but it went offline somewhere around

2010 today Robert still plays not at the nosebleed levels of his past but he appears to play daily tournaments on a regular basis he did have one significant result in 2023 he took second place in the world series 1500 Big O Five Card Pot Limit Omaha high low

Eight or better s-h handed for just under $192,000 Robert was one of those made for TV personalities that really did help bring people into poker back in the 2000s he was both entertaining at the table and the broadcast Booth most of the players featured in the series have

H the same path they get degrees in areas that demonstrate their big brain intellect and then on the way to a successful career in business they find themselves suddenly a professional poker player Jason Mercier took a slightly different path he started at a younger age and played his first game in the

Casino before he turned 18 Mercier was born on November 12th 1986 as a 17-year-old living in Hollywood Florida Jason decided to try his hand at poker this was in 2004 and everyone was playing in 2004 17-year-old Jason decided he was going to go to the casino and the casino didn’t realize

That they had a 17-year-old playing in their Poker Room uh but he only did it once he says U because he did it he decided to do it like right before his 18th birthday fast forward to 2008 Jason quickly became one of the best of the young tournament players that were

Starting to dominate poker his first hended mom listed cash was a first place in the EP Sano main event for just under 1.4 million in the EP that year he would also go onto a final table at EP Barcelona where he took sixth and a win

In the EP London High Roller event Jason has six WSOP bracelets with none of them being in no limit hold him his first bracelet was in 2009 and his last was in 2023 for a time in the 2010s people wondered what happened to Jason Mercier he was all over the poker scene for

About 5 years and then he vanished seemingly well that was by Design Jason became a family man he and his wife professional player Natasha Mercier whose maid name is Barber for those of you keeping track at home had three kids and live in South Florida Jason appears

To be very happy being a family man his career earnings are over $20 million his wife’s career earnings are over $1.3 million they seem to be enjoying being back to the game that they really love as a family man I appreciate the fact that they found that work life balance

That you know gives them time with the kids and also time to play poker who wouldn’t like that well I hope you enjoyed episode 11 I know it’s been a minute since the last time I did one of these so hopefully YouTube doesn’t sync this one into their uh algorithm held

But we’ll find out but I appreciate the likes and the comments and I’ll catch you on the next one