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Team PokerStars Pro - Bill Chen
Bill Chen
William Chen, a mathematician by trade, exploded onto the world wide poker scene with an amazing performance at the 2006 World Series of Poker. The man described by David Sklansky as the "smartest poker player" in the world, Chen uses his strong mathematics background to compete at the highest levels in the poker tournament world. Poker to the uninitiated can look like a game of chance, and those of us who have been playing for many years know that certainly there is a degree of luck in the game, but we also know that there is a huge amount of skill, and the top players in the world are extremely intelligent people. This is what makes William Chen such an asset to Team PokerStars Pro.
Dr. Chen graduated in 1999 with a PhD in Mathematics from UC Berkeley in California. It was during this time that Chen honed his poker skills at the Oaks Card Club in Emeryville, California, where he quickly learned the value of applying math to the game of poker and became interested in game theory, and in particular poker game theory. Chen’s poker earnings helped finance many of his years in school.
After completing his dissertation, Chen joined the Susquehanna International Group, a leading financial services firm who is active on five continents. An interesting bit of trivia; Susquehanna was actually founded by a group of poker players. Chen works as a quantitative analyst for SIG, and he has been actively encouraged by the managing partners to continue his mathematical analysis of poker. The benefits of his poker knowledge are also applicable to his day job due to the correlation between financial trading and the game theory involved in poker.
Chen is given a generous 6 weeks off each year by his employers just to play in the World Series of Poker, and what a few weeks he has had in 2006. He won an incredible two bracelets, taking first in the $3000 limit Texas hold em event and the $2500 short handed no limit Texas hold em event. Chen also placed in 4 other events, winning over $800,000 in the process. He is not just a hold em specialist, as he plays all forms of poker competitively and has had several cashes in other forms of poker including pot limit Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, Lowball and 7 Card Stud.
Chen bases his poker game largely on math. While math is such an important part of poker, one gets the feeling that Chen must take it to a whole new level. It has been said that he conceptualizes math in poker beyond what anybody else in the game is currently doing. His book “The Mathematics of Poker", co-written with Jerrod Ankenman, which is due for release in the fall of 2006, should be a great read and is reportedly designed so that lesser minds than Chen (which include just about all of us) will be able to understand.
Chen now plays proudly for Team PokerStars Pro.
Major Tournament Achievements
- 2006 *WSOP $1,500 No Limit Hold Em - 7th place $ 22,932
- 2006 WSOP $2,500 Short Handed No Limit Hold Em - 1st place $ 442,511
- 2006 WSOP $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha - 19th place $ 12,295
- 2006 WSOP $3,000 Limit Hold Em - 1st place $ 343,618
- Legends of Poker, Los Angeles (August 2000) - 1st place $ 41,600
* World Series of Poker and WSOP are trademarks of Harrah's License Company, LLC ("Harrah's"). Harrah's does not sponsor or endorse, and is not associated or affiliated with, PokerStars or its products, services, promotions or tournaments.
