WSOP Bracelet Winner Profile: Brian Rast (original) (raw)

Rast held the chip lead for all but a few hands of final table play

Rast held the chip lead for all but a few hands of final table play

In terms of importance, Brian Rast weighs a lot of things ahead of poker tournaments, even those that take place at the WSOP. Case in point: Rast opted to head out of the country during the early WSOP action this summer so he could fly to Brazil and spend time with his fiancée, Juliana. As a predominantly cash game grinder, the WSOP tournament action has never really been Rast’s bread and butter, though he does have six WSOP cashes and two final tables to his credit.

On the Rast spectrum of importance, love may be more important than poker tournaments, but poker tournaments appear to be more important than sleep. After arriving home from Brazil at nine in the morning, Rast was all set to spend the morning and afternoon napping, but thanks to his friend, Antonio Esfandiari, he played the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event instead.

Friendship, another seemingly important thing to Rast, and, as Esfandiari puts it, “a deal [Rast]couldn’t say no,” to prevailed and Rast played. Then Rast won his first bracelet and picked up his first major poker title.

“I haven’t been a hard core tournament player during my career, but, at this point, after seven years, it has now racked up to be a decent number of tournaments. It means a lot to me that I was finally able to take one down. Even though I am up in the World Series in terms of cashes,” says Rast, whose previous best finish in a WSOP event was a ninth place finish in a 2008 Pot Limit Omaha with rebuys event.

One of those players who tend to fly under the radar to the poker public, but maintain a reputation as a tough opponent amongst his peers, Rast took center stage on Saturday. Here is a little more about the man in the spotlight:

Name: Brian Rast

Age: 29

Hometown: Poway, California

Current city: Las Vegas, Nevada

Occupation: Professional poker player

Education: Dropped out of Stanford University

Online screenname: tsarrast

Lifetime live tournament earnings: $959,158

Lifetime online tournament earnings: $412,921

Memorable quotes: (on the importance of reputation) “I feel like I’m pretty well known in the poker community of professionals who respect my game, but now maybe people who haven’t heard will recognize me. I think respect from your peers is pretty important and everyone wants respect from people within their profession and a bracelet kind of gives you that recognition.”

(On his future poker plans) “A this point I’ve been playing for quite a while and really it’s the only skill I have. I think I’ve developed it to the point to be pretty profitable, even though online has gotten tougher. My goal is to use poker to make enough money where I can be financially set. Starting a family now, I want to take poker to a place where I can take care of those things and eventually along the way I would like to maybe have some other sources of income happen.”

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