Who is Antonio Esfandiari

Over the next few years, Antonio worked religiously on his magic and practiced coin tricks, sleight of hand, and card tricks. By the age of 19, he was a college student and began working as a waiter while he slowly developed into an excellent magician. He would do tricks for his customers which received mixed reviews from management. Antonio eventually convinced the owner to allow him do a few tricks to entertain the customers. Soon after, he quit school and started performing as a full-time magician working parties and events.

One day his roommate was going to play in a poker tournament and invited Antonio to tag along. Antonio had never played in a poker tournament before and that was his first time ever inside a casino. He was knocked out early but he had already caught the poker bug. He went home and read as many books about poker as he could get his hands on.

Antonio eventually built up his bankroll. After a few months, he had almost $20,000 and took it to Las Vegas. He played in a few World Series of Poker events and cash games where he lost it all. That huge loss did not discourage Antonio. He went back home to California and worked on improving the holes in his game and rebuilt his bankroll. He eventually hit the World Poker Tour circuit and the rest is history.

On the first season of the World Poker Tour, Antonio Esfandiari made a name for himself. He entered a WPT event called the 2002 Gold Rush at Lucky Chances Casino in San Francisco. He made it to the final table that featured some of the top names in poker which included Phil Hellmuth, Paul Darden, Chris Bigler, Vince Burgio, and Tommy Garza. Antonio held his own against those tournament veterans and finished in 3rd place, winning $44,000. He began what would become a series of bouts with Phil Hellmuth. After Antonio knocked Phil Hellmuth out, he was overly jubilant and played up to the anti-Hellmuth crowd, a move which angered Hellmuth who thought it was unsportsmanlike.

In February of 2004, Antonio made two final tables on the WPT in the same week. He won the WPT L.A. Poker Classic at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. He took home almost $1.4 million and beat out a final table that included top pros such as Vinny Vinh, Bill Gazes, Adam Schoenfeld, and WPT champion David Benyamine. Later that week, Antonio made his third career final table on the WPT when he came in 6th at the WPT Invitational at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. That final table featured his good friend Phil "The Unabomber" Laak, Humberto Brenes, John Juanda, and Harry Demetriou. Indeed, 2004 was Antonio's best year and he would end up at 11th on the 2004 Money List.

Antonio has also won one World Series of Poker bracelet. He won it in 2004 and beat out his nemesis Phil Hellmuth for a victory in the $2,000 Pot Limit Hold'em event. Also at his final table were Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and Tony Cousineau. Antonio also made two other final tables. He took 5th in 2003 for his first ever career WSOP cash in the $2,000 No Limit Hold'em event. At his final table were Minneapolis Jim Meehan, Juha Helppi, Mike Sexton, and Kathy Liebert. He also made a final table at the 2005 WSOP in the Short-handed NL event. He finished in 5th at a final table that featured David Singer, Isaac Galazan, and Harry Demetriou.

Antonio Esfandiari was once quoted as saying, "Don't let your first limo ride be in a hearse." That sums up his aggressive style of play. He's a fearless player and will move all in against you if he senses weakness. He has won over $2.27 million playing in poker tournaments and is 13th on the all time WPT money list. To this day, Antonio is close friends with Phil Laak. The two used to be roommates and often share rooms while attending poker tournaments on the road.

Before he started playing tournament poker, Antonio Esfandiari was about to attend culinary school. His dream is to open a magic-themed restaurant. For now, Antonio lives in San Francisco, California and can be seen playing on the tournament circuit.

Did you know that he busted out of the Big One at the 2004 WSOP in the first few hours of play? Can you imagine that Antonio -- magic though he may be -- loses more tournaments than he wins? Of course he does. Everybody does! And that, in a sense, is the secret of Antonio's success. The secret?

Antonio actually sees money three different ways. There's money he spends on parties and friends, and this is money he spends insanely lavishly. Then there's "justice money," money that, no matter how large or small, has to give good value. "Justice money" is why you'll see Antonio cruising for a public parking space -- all night long if need be -- if he thinks what the private lots are charging is a gouge.

Finally there's poker money -- money that does nothing but play poker. This money is not money, not in Antonio's mind. It's the tools of his trade, and he no more thinks about the dollar cost of an individual chip than a carpenter thinks about the cost of the nails he's driving. That carpenter'll drive all the nails he needs to in order to do the job. Same with Antonio. Same with you, if you choose to.

Consider you chips to be the cost of doing business, nothing more and nothing less. You'll free yourself from the fear of losing them, and then you can go win more.

But there are other fears besides the fear of losing money. There's also the fear of looking silly, and this fear can brutalize a player's play.

Antonio crashed out of the 2004 WSOP in spectacular fashion. A few broken drives, a few busted bluffs and. bam! Gone! Antonio! The wunderkind! The guy all eyes and ESPN cameras were glued to. Gone! Not quite gone in sixty seconds, but gone pretty damn quick. How would it make you feel if you were him. had all those expectations laid on you. and crashed and burned so soon? Would you feel like the last float on the clueless parade? You might.

Not Antonio.

He played right, caught unlucky, and got bounced out of the tournament on his ass. Did he feel bad? Did he feel a fool? Did he feel like he'd let down all those fans and all that expectation? Hell no! Why? Because. bottom line. he played right. He wasn't afraid to fail, and he wasn't afraid to disappoint the people who had high hopes for him. He knew that he had no chance -- none -- if he played to defend his image, rather than play his game and play to win.

Down here on the mortal level, we carry all kinds of people's expectations around with us. We're afraid to bust out early, squandering both our buy-in and our fragile, fearful egos. From Olympian heights, Antonio looks down and says, "Hey, right play is right play." That's why he's never afraid to make the right move at the right time, even if that time is the first ten minutes of a tournament, and even if the move goes wrong.

Because when it goes right, then you put yourself in position to win. And then you'll have a chance to stand with Shana and Vince.