Antonio Esfandiari
Antonio Esfandiari is known as the magician – and who other than a magician is likely to have many card tricks up their sleeves! He is known as a magician because he used to be one. He was a magician before he fell into playing poker professionally and becoming a worldwide poker super star.
Esfandiari is originally from Iran and came to the US back in 1988. He worked as a waiter to fund his party lifestyle. He had his own apartment at 17 and started to do magic tricks while he waited on tables. He earned huge tips by entertaining the customers who came to see a young waiter intrigue them with his card handling skills as they ate.
At 19 Antonio was a professional magician but he was soon attracted to the game when he got invited to play a game. It also helped that his roommate was a professional poker player. He taught Esfandiari everything he knew about poker and it wasn’t long before he could play poker professionally. He used his skills as a magician and as a poker player together to develop his ability to read other people’s behaviour patterns.
He got to his first major tournament in 2002 in the Word Poker tour. He was placed third in that competition that was his first, but by no means would be his last. He won a total of $44,000 and later went on to win the whole thing He currently has one world series of poker bracelet and many money finishes.
He is a massive character and a huge part of the poker scene in Vegas now and is likely to be for some time yet. Here’s a light hearted clip of Antonio performing a magic trick and showing what his magic hands can do off the poker table:-

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