Phil Gordon's Biography

With an estimated 80 million Americans actively playing poker, what are a person's chances of making it as a professional player? Or, for that matter, to travel around the world before you're 30? Dive with the Great White Sharks, raft down the Amazon, scale Mt. Kilimanjaro and explore the Inca trails of Peru? Phil Gordon has accomplished all these things and continues to lead this example of a "No Limits Lifestyle" everyday.

As a top professional poker player, expert analyst, one of the world's top instructors of poker and adventure traveler, Gordon will tell you poker as well as other aspects of life takes more than luck or playing the cards you're dealt; it requires the fine art of playing your cards right. Whether examining business icons like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, or elite professional poker players from Phil Ivey to Phil Gordon, the key to their success is essentially the same. Being lucky may be fine for the short term, but long-term success in poker, as in business, goes to those who continually put the odds in their favor by making good decisions. Since making his professional debut in 2001 at the World Series of Poker championship event with a head-turning fourth place finish earning $400,000.00, Gordon has gone on to win over 2.3 million in tournament play. He is one of only four multi-time winners on the World Poker Tour. At the World Poker Tour's inaugural tournament in Aruba, he beat out seven of the top players in the world to win the professional division and claim the $250,000 first place check. In November 2006 Phil won his biggest purse prize to date raking in $600,000 at the Full Tilt Poker. Net Championship.

Gordon grew up in Stone Mountain, Georgia, a small suburb of Atlanta and entered Georgia Institute of Technology as a National Merit Scholarship Finalist at age 15, Gordon earned a degree in Computer Science, which eventually led him to Northern California and a job at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company. Long before Yahoo! or AOL, Gordon was a computer programming whiz kid of 21, living in Santa Cruz and working on artificial intelligence for the government. Gordon went on to work for NETSYS Technologies which sold to Cisco systems for $95 million. Gordon's then decided to journey around the globe, a trip that lasted five years and covered more than 50 countries and five continents.

Six years after that first trip, Gordon returned to the States rejuvenated, more worldly, and wiser from the experience – and just in time for the launch of the World Poker Tour. He had already done commentary work at a World Series of Poker event and played poker regularly with other professionals and many celebrities which eventually led him to co-hosting the TV series Celebrity Poker Showdown," which quickly became one of the highest rated series on the Bravo Network and the top series in its category. Before the series, Gordon willingly tutored friends and acquaintances on how to improve their play, whenever asked. "I love teaching the game," he says. "I truly believe that almost anyone can be a champion poker player given enough time, motivation, energy, patience and courage." This love of the game recently led him to add the title of popular author to his many credits.

His first book, Poker: The Real Deal, sold nearly 100,000 copies within four months of publication and continues to be a leading title in its category. Gordon upped the ante with his book The Little Green Book of No-Limit Hold'em (Simon Spotlight Entertainment) released in 2005, considered by some as the definitive strategy guide to No Limit Hold'em. His latest book " The Little Blue Book More Lessons and Hand Analysis in No Limit Hold ‘Em" goes even deeper into detail on raising ones game and making a profit. Phil's innovative instructional DVD, "Final Table Poker," was released during the World Series of Poker championship in July 2005. Final Table Poker is distributed by Expert Insight, an innovative educational media company founded by Gordon. Since Final Table Poker was released, EI has gone on to produce "Beating Blackjack with Andy Bloch" and "Short Game Golf with Jim Furyk and Fred Funk" In addition to instructional DVDs, EI is expanding the brand to include premium web-based instruction and content on ExpertInsight.com; the Expert Insight Speaker's Series; Expert Insight Books & CDs; and the Expert Insight Store.

Gordon has teamed up with Fox Sports Net as the expert analyst and commentator of Pechanga Celebrity Poker Challenge, is a contributing writer for ESPN Poker Club, launched "The Poker Edge," a radio show co-hosted by Gordon and Andrew Feldman on ESPNRadio, Co-broadcasts WSOP final table on Pay Per View, is partnering with Harrah's Hotels and Casinos for their WSOP Annual Circuit Tour, is a member of the WSOP Players Advisory Council and in 2007 Phil will be the Announcer on the new ESPN show "The Equalizer". Gordon has become an in-demand host for corporate poker tournaments and tutorials and has emceed events for Michael Jordan, Seagram's 7, Degree, Google, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the National Kidney Foundation and numerous Fortune 500 companies. He is a proud member of Team Full Tilt, a revolutionary online poker site featuring 10 of the most successful and well-respected professional players in the world.

Gordon's altruistic side is something that also distinguishes him as a player and as a person. He is currently a national spokesperson for, and Board of Directors member of, the Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation. Since the loss of his great-aunt Lib to lung cancer in 2002, Phil's efforts have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for cancer research. At poker tournaments around the world, he lobbies players to pledge one percent of their potential winnings to cancer research and his Bad Beat on Cancer. One of those who made the pledge was Phil Hellmuth Jr., who happily wrote a check to the Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation for $25,000 at this years 2006 World Series of Poker Championship event.

Phil's current goal is to be the leading professional poker analyst and teacher and to not only lead a life of "No Limits" but to communicate to every individual out there how they can do just the same. Phil currently resides in Las Vegas, NV.