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Sam Farha
Born in Lebanon (what is it with all these Lebanese, are exceptional poker skills a national trait over there?) in 1959, Sam Farha had proven from an early age that he had a natural affinity towards various games of skill.
His Pinball and Pool antics had already secured him spots on the covers of some of the nation’s most significant gaming magazines, when the civil war broke out and he decided to leave Lebanon for good.
Having moved to the U.S. in 1977, Sam Farha made the wise choice to make a lemonade out of the big slice of lemon life handed to him and he started attending the University Of Kansas, which he graduated from with a Business Administration degree.
He set up headquarters in Houston, TX, and started working diverse – rather uninteresting - jobs.
All the while, he knew he was cut out for something much bigger, and Las Vegas was the town where he'd eventually earn the recognition he deserved. His first trip to Vegas - as if had been the case for many other poker pros before him - didn't exactly prove to be the definition of success. Far from being discouraged, he knew he had to work a lot more on his game, and after four years of gradual improvement, he felt the time had come to make a living off his favorite game. It was 1990, and back then he probably never suspected how big an impact he would have on the poker-world. His aggressive style based on opponent-intimidation had changed the face of the game forever.
His first major success came in 1996, in the WSOP's $2,500 PL Omaha event, where he bagged no less than $145,000. That was his first WSOP bracelet, to be joined by the second one 10 years later in 2006, in the $5,000 FL Omaha event which landed him about $390,000.
In the meantime however, Farha proved to be an exceptionally busy poker player, in the most constructive way. 2003 is probably remembered as the pinnacle of Farha's poker career. That year he finished 2nd in the WSOP main event to eventual champion, Pokerstars entrant Greg Raymer. Just to illustrate how close Sam Farha really came to the title that year, a few months later, in a re-match organized by Pokerstars he beat Raymer.
2005 saw another WSOP main event money finish from Farha, which meant that his all-time WSOP money finishes became 5 in number. His all-time poker winnings are above $2,000,000.
In addition to the 2 WSOP bracelets mentioned above, he also has 3 WPT money finishes to show, and some pretty spectacular victories in GSN’s High Stakes Poker.
Currently, Sam Farha is a spokesman of Harrah's Casino and he's working on a book called "Luck is not Enough".
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Sam Farha : Poker Player
