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Professional Poker Players and Celebrities |
Paul Wasicka
Paul Wasicka, born 17th of February 1981, is a professional poker playing best known for his 2nd place finish at the 2006 WSOP Main event and his win of the 2007 NBC National HU Championship.
The final table of 2006 World Series of poker is best remembered by Jamie Gold’s antics. Usually people don't remember who came in second, but that particular year was different; on the other hand off the heads-up table there was a very subdued guy. He played great poker to get this far having survived a final table that was very celebrated because of its toughness. The battle between Gold and Paul Wasicka not last long because Jamie Gold started the heads-up match with over 9 to 1 chip lead against him. But Paul Wasicka having survived Vegas in full-blown summer heat without air conditioning in his car just made themselves a name in the poker world by winning the second largest ever prize won in live poker at the time, and it was second only to the winner of the eventual event Jamie Gold.
But this was simply one single highlight in the career of an up and coming poker star.
Wasicka has always been competition driven. In pretty much every discipline he decided to undertake, he would be near the top of the performers. This has happened multiple times throughout his life, such as a child he would take up soccer, chess, backgammon, later some bowling and also skiing. He would excel everywhere he would compete. Upon entering high school, Wasicka competed in 5 different sports: volleyball, wrestling, track and cross-country and also skiing. All this variety was necessitated, because as he himself stated, “ I have an extremely short attention span.”
So how did Wasicka end up at the poker tables? One day when he was on a ski trip going through Vancouver, he and a friend he was tripping with stopped by a casino. Wasicka put $100 on the blackjack table, and started winning. Wasicka then forgot he was in town to go skiing, and instead spend his time at the casino playing blackjack. That trip, he made $17,000. He liked the fact that you could make money with gambling, and from that point forwards it was only a matter of time before he discovered poker. You see, in blackjack you are always playing vs. the house; this means, that in the long run (which is the sole thing that matters in any gambling game) you cannot win. But in poker, since you play vs. other people, you could eke out a long term profit. Wasicka intuitively understood this.
Wasicka decided to invest a lot of time scoping his online poker options. Where and what to play were of paramount importance, after he realized that you could actually make money at this gambling thing. After a few rough patches, he finally started making the magical sum of $1,000 per day, at which point he quit his day job in order to pursue this poke passion full time.
This decision proved to be life changing: Wasicka, during that incredible 2006 year in which he was a relative rookie to live poker, also took 15th in a $25,000 buy-in WPT championship for $146,000, 12th in the $5,000 short handed NLHE WSOP event and 14th in the $5,000 NLHE WSOP event, so his incredible performance during that main event was not really a surprise. In 2007, Wasicka did not slow down; he had a strong 12th place finish at the 2007 Aussie Millions and won the NBC National Heads Up Championship. He also finished 4th at the World Poker Tour (WPT) $9,900 No Limit Hold'em held at the 2007 L.A. Poker Classic, good for $455,615. As of 2008, Wasicka has won $7,500,000 in live tournament play alone.
Paul Wasicka is now a Full Tilt Red, and can be seen grinding 25/50NL on days when he is not out on the live tournament circuit.
Common misspellings: Paul Wascika, Paul Wasika, Paul Wasikca, Paul Wassika
Learn more about Paul Wasicka at Full Tilt Poker.
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