Athletes - Phil Gordon

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	Athletes - Phil Gordon

: This article is about the professional poker player Phil Gordon, not Phil Gordon, mayor of Phoenix, Arizona. Phil "Tiltboy" Gordon (born July 6, 1970) is an American professional poker player, based in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Before poker

Before starting his poker career, he 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, and in 1997 he retired from the high-tech industry to travel the world.

Poker playing

He first entered the World Series of Poker (WSOP) $10,000 no limit hold'em main event in 2001 and finished 4th, winning $400,000 and a spot on the Travel Channel documentary ("Inside the World Series of Poker").

He had two WSOP final table appearances at the 2002, and won the Pro Division of the World Poker Tour (WPT) inaugural tournament in Aruba, before losing to the amateur division's winner Juha Helppi.

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.

In July 2004, Gordon helped design an online poker cardroom, Full Tilt Poker, where he can be found playing frequently.

As of 2006, Gordon's total live tournament winnings exceed $1,000,000.

Poker journalism

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 is also the author of three books on poker, including Poker: The Real Deal, and Phil Gordon's Little Green Book: Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Hold 'em. He has released a DVD, Final Table Poker, in 2005.

He was a commentator on Bravo's show Celebrity Poker Showdown, before stepping down in 2006. Gordon will be replaced by fellow poker professional Phil Hellmuth.

Cancer research

Gordon was taught poker by a woman who died of liver cancer. As such, he has been keen to carry out fundraising for the , a charity he has supported since his fundraising tour in 2003-04.

He has raised funds by:

# selling a tip booklet he wrote for Celebrity Poker Showdown contestants # forming the "Put a Bad Beat on Cancer" Foundation at the 2003 World Series of Poker, asking players to donate 1% of their winnings to cancer research (supporters of the foundation include Marcel Lüske, Harry "Wise Owl" Demetriou and Phil Hellmuth Jr) # setting up a $200 entry Roshambo tournament at the 2005 World Series of Poker, with the first prize being a buy-in to the main event, and all profits going to the charity # hosting a celebrity poker tournament one day prior to Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston. Celebrity players included Marcus Allen, Clyde Drexler, Jeff Bagwell, Yanni, Kato Kaelin, and many more. At the tournament's final table, Eddie George of the Tennessee Titans defeated Jerome Bettis of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The event was produced by the Glasure Group PR agency.

Trivia

Gordon is 6' 9" (2.06 meters) tall.
Gordon is featured in the reality dating show Blind Date. Like many of the people appearing in the show, he was known only by his first name.

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