Athletes - Todd Witteles

Home > Listing Index > Athletes > Todd Witteles

	Athletes - Todd Witteles

Todd "Dan Druff" Witteles (born 1972) is an American professional poker player.

Life Background

Witteles grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles. His obsession with video games in the late 1970s and 1980s led to a fascination with computers, which ultimately ended up shaping his life. He learned to write computer programs at age 10 on a Commodore Vic-20, and was just 14 years old when he first got online in 1986. Witteles' obvious choice for his college major and career was computer science, and he received a Master's Degree in that field in 1995.

Witteles worked as a software engineer for two different companies between 1995 and 2003. Outside of work, he wrote and operated a popular internet chat room, which ran from 1997 through 2002.

He is Jewish and is an outspoken Republican. His hobbies include skiing, sports, politics, and writing.

Witteles has never been married and has no children, but has been in a long-term relationship with girlfriend Miri since 2001.

Early Poker Career

Witteles played his first hand of Texas Hold 'Em in January 2001, at the Hustler Casino in Gardena, California. He instantly fell in love with the game, and vowed to improve his skills and move up in limits. His newfound affinity for poker and his longstanding interest in computers collided when he found online poker just a month later. The faster pace of the online games, along with the ability to play several tables at once, allowed Witteles to play hundreds of thousands of hands per year, greatly increasing his experience.

Despite spending a lot of time playing, Witteles enjoyed only moderate success in poker during 2001 and 2002. However, his breakthrough year occurred in 2003, as he started consistently winning to the point where he felt he could play for a living. Witteles left his regular job in August 2003, and pursued a full-time poker career.

Witteles differed from most poker players, both professional and amateur, in that he initially had no interest in playing poker tournaments. He focused completely on limit hold'em cash games, and began to consistently win at the high-limit tables in late 2003.

He moved to Las Vegas in November 2004.

Tournament Success

After avoiding tournaments for all 4 1/2 years of his poker career, Witteles decided on a whim to take a shot at the $1,500 limit hold'em event of the 2005 World Series of Poker on June 5, 2005. Despite being his first tournament, Witteles finished in 3rd place out of a field of 1,049 entrants. He took home nearly $116,000 after getting knocked out of the tournament by 21-year-old Eric Froehlich. As a humorous gimmick, Witteles used a small Head & Shoulders bottle to protect his cards while playing, in reference to his online moniker "Dan Druff."

Excited by the results of his first effort, Witteles entered the $3,000 buyin Limit Hold 'Em event on July 3, 2005. He won that event in the closing minutes of the 4th of July, earning a World Series of Poker gold bracelet and $347,385. No other player in World Series of Poker history has finished better in their first two events ever played. He was named CardPlayer Magazine's World Series of Poker Player of the Year for 2005.

Despite entering relatively few tournaments after the World Series, Witteles also finished in 2nd, 4th, and 6th in tournaments between September and December of 2005. He ended up with over $567,000 in tournament winnings in 2005.

Witteles was not without his share of controversy. His 3rd place finish was broadcasted on ESPN, and some felt that he acted unsportsmanlike. Witteles would cheer after knocking out opponents, and even twirled a seat cover in the air in celebration at one point. Responding to the criticism, Witteles claimed he was just acting up for the TV cameras, and that ESPN had unfairly edited much of what was shown. Regardless, the broadcast somewhat hurt his reputation in the poker world.

Witteles claims he will play more tournaments in 2006, attempting to continue his early success. His main focus still remains cash games.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Todd Witteles ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Todd Witteles; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay