For the mayor of Phoenix, Arizona, see Phil Gordon (politician)
Phil Gordon (born July 6, 1970) is an American professional poker player, based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Gordon graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in computer science in 1991. After stints working at Santa Cruz Operation and Lockheed, Gordon joined start-up Netsys Technologies as their first hired employee. In 1996, Netsys was acquired by Cisco Systems, making him a millionaire, and in 1997 he retired from the high-tech industry to travel the world.
This article or section may contain proseline.
Please help convert this timeline into prose or, if necessary, a list. (help)
Phil Gordon first entered The World Series of Poker Main Event in 2001 and finished 4th, winning $400,000. In 2002, he made two more WSOP final tables, finishing 6th in the $2,000 Pot Limit hold 'em event and 3rd in the $2,500 Omaha Hi/Lo Split event. At the 2005 WSOP, he finished 3rd in the $1,500 No Limit Texas hold 'em Shootout event. Although he made several WSOP final tables, he has yet to win a bracelet. To date, Gordon has won $641,073 at the World Series of Poker.
Gordon made one World Poker Tour final table in 2002, finishing 5th in the Ultimate Bet Poker Classic. In March 2004 he knocked out two players at once (one of whom was Chris Moneymaker) to win the WPT's "Bay 101 Shooting Stars" tournament.
Also in 2002, Gordon won the professional division of the WPT inaugural tournament in Aruba, before losing to the amateur division's winner, Juha Helppi.
On Thanksgiving Day 2006, Gordon won the Full Tilt Poker Poker Championship at Red Rock, beating Roland De Wolfe heads-up and taking down a purse of $600,000.
As of 2007, Gordon's total live tournament winnings exceed $1,600,000.
In 2007, he began appearing on the television series Poker After Dark, this is in addition to his previous time on Celebrity Poker Showdown.
Gordon earned $25,000 at the 2007 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship tournament, finishing in the final 16. Gordon defeated Scotty Nguyen and 2006 WSOP Main Event champion Jamie Gold to advance.
Gordon is one of the "Tiltboys", a group of northern California poker players.
In 2003, he provided commentary of the WSOP Championship Event for Binion's live Internet broadcast, as well as daily reports for a national radio audience.
He has also written three books on poker, including Poker: The Real Deal and Phil Gordon's Little Green Book: Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Hold 'em, and the October 2006 release Phil Gordon's Little Blue Book: More Lessons and Hand Analysis in No Limit Hold 'em. He has released an award winning instructional DVD, Expert Insight: Final Table Poker.
He was a commentator on Bravo's show Celebrity Poker Showdown for six seasons, before stepping down in 2006 and being replaced by fellow poker professional Phil Hellmuth. He is also the lead broadcaster for the ESPN series, The Pro-Am Poker Equalizer that began airing January 6, 2007.
Gordon has written for poker magazines, and writes a regular column and hosts a radio show, The Poker Edge, for ESPN.com.
He provided commentary for ESPN's live pay per view broadcast of the final table of the main event of the 2006 World Series of Poker.
Gordon was taught poker by his aunt, who died of liver cancer. As such, he has been keen to carry out fundraising as a Board Member of the Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation, a charity he has supported since he and fellow poker pro, Rafe Furst, embarked on their Ultimate Sports Adventure tour in 2003-04.
He has raised funds by:
This article contains a trivia section.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items into the main text and removing inappropriate items.
This article has been tagged since June 2007.
