The Man Who Never Needed A Job

Ralph was born in Russia. However, when he was still a child his family moved to Israel. At the young age of 17 Ralph decided to come over to the United States. For the next 8 years he lived a normal life until one faithful night when he was 25. He ended up getting invited to a pool hall somewhere in Brooklyn, New York. Ralph didn’t realize taking the offer was going to change the course of his life forever. At one point during the night he decided to sit in for a game of poker. The game that was being played was Seven Card Stud. After playing for about an hour he walked out with an extra $20. This drew him to come to the pool hall more and more often to play. Once poker was legalized in Atlantic City he started playing there as it was a shorter drive. This didn’t settle Ralph for very long as it was Las Vegas that kept beckoning for him to come.

Before going to Las Vegas he decided he was going to get a job as a blackjack dealer. However, once he got there he never needed a job. He just sat down and started playing low limit stud games and was able to make money off it. From that point on he just played stud and that’s all he knew. After that Ralph found Texas Hold’em and started to teach himself that game as well. He made his way through the 2002 World Series of Poker championship and made it all the way up to third place where he was awarded half a million dollars. However, he decided that third was not going to be good enough for him and in 2006 he made another run at the World Series of Poker title. He vowed to his wife before he went that he was going to win a bracelet that year. He managed to beat out 526 other players to win the championship and take home his bracelet.

Ralph now resides in Las Vegas with his wife and two kids. His total tournament winnings reach over $2.5 million. It should be expected that we will see more of him in tournaments.