Joseph Charles Beevers (born 9 December 1967 in

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

) is an English professional

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game wa ...

player and a member of

The Hendon Mob The Hendon Mob are a group of four professional poker players from London, England: Joe Beevers, Barny Boatman, Ross Boatman, and Ram Vaswani. The name of the group was first publicised by the ''Evening Standard'' newspaper in September 2000. ...

. During his lengthy poker career, Beevers became one of the pioneers of

poker on television Poker television programs had been extremely popular, especially in North America and Europe, following the poker boom. This has especially become the case since the invention of the " pocket cam" in 1997 (and its first use in the United States in 2 ...

by appearing in every series of Late Night Poker, where he made a record 3 grand finals. Beevers also won the 2007

Poker Million The Poker Million has been a televised European poker tournament since its inception in November 2000. The final debuted to 30 million viewers and has since remained popular. It was created by UK gaming outfit Ladbrokes with the help of sports pro ...

and finished runner-up in two further televised poker events.

Early years

Beevers' father taught him how to count cards in

blackjack Blackjack (formerly Black Jack and Vingt-Un) is a casino banking game. The most widely played casino banking game in the world, it uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One. This fam ...

from age 10. His father also taught Beevers how to work out

permutation In mathematics, a permutation of a set is, loosely speaking, an arrangement of its members into a sequence or linear order, or if the set is already ordered, a rearrangement of its elements. The word "permutation" also refers to the act or pro ...

s and

probabilities Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and 1, where, roughly speaking, ...

on a

Sinclair ZX81 The ZX81 is a home computer that was produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and designed to be a low-co ...

computer. Beevers left school at age 16, and became a part of a card-counting team with his father and two others at age 18. They often played at the Sergeant Yorkes Casino in

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

, where they found a

croupier A croupier or dealer is someone appointed at a gambling table to assist in the conduct of the game, especially in the distribution of bets and payouts. Croupiers are typically employed by casinos. Origin of the word Originally a "croupier" meant ...

who often paid out 3–1 on blackjacks, and sometimes also paid out when a player's hand was bust. The team eventually stopped playing as their success led to Beevers being banned from 4 London

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live enterta ...

s, and his father being banned from 19. Between them they were banned from 21 out of 23 London casinos. They also went to gamble on

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...

events about three times a week. Beevers worked first for

NatWest National Westminster Bank, commonly known as NatWest, is a major retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster Bank. In 2000, i ...

(as his father had done before him) then for

Citibank Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City ...

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London ...

. He went on to attend

Middlesex University Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated MDX) is a public research university in Hendon, northwest London, England. The name of the university is taken from its location within the historic county boundaries ...

as a

mature student An adult learner or, more commonly, a mature student, is a person who is older and is involved in forms of learning. Adult learners fall in a specific criterion of being experienced, and do not always have a high school diploma. Many of the adult ...

towards of the end of his 4 years playing regular blackjack, and graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

Honour's degree in

Finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of f ...

and

Accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "languag ...

at the age of 24. Around this time, Beevers placed

dog racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around a track. There are two forms of greyhound racing, track racing (normally around an oval track) and coursing; the latter is now banned in most countries. Tra ...

bets for future Hendon Mobster

Ram Vaswani Ram "Crazy Horse" Vaswani (born 1 September 1970 from Finchley, Greater London) is an former professional poker and snooker player and the youngest member of The Hendon Mob, a group of professional poker players. He resides in Finchley with his ...

in Harrow, and they later met in Luton, starting an ongoing friendship.

Poker career

Beevers began playing poker by entering a £10 pot limit stud rebuy poker tournament during a blackjack session in Luton. He went on to regularly play in a seven-card stud game in North London, where he estimates he won £35,000 to start his bankroll. By the time he finished university, he was earning well enough from playing poker and giving lessons to teachers and other students that he never returned to office work. Prior to the emergence of televised poker, Beevers ran private poker games with Ram Vaswani. They played much pot limit Omaha there, which Beevers considers to be his preferred poker variant. It was in this game that they met

Barny Barny is a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name *Barny Boatman (born 1956), English poker player Surname *Junes Barny (born 1989), Swedish football player *Bernard Barny de Romanet (1894–1921), French W ...

and

Ross Boatman Ross Maxim Boatman (born 3 March 1964) is an English actor, professional poker player and a member of the poker-playing group the Hendon Mob. He is known for the role of Firefighter Kevin Medhurst in the ITV drama series '' London's Burning'' ...

, the other two members of the Hendon Mob. Beevers began to travel to tournaments and won his first major event in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

in 1997. Upon winning, Beevers called his flatmate at 3am and sang

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

's "

We Are the Champions "We Are the Champions" is a song by the British rock band Queen, released from the band's sixth album ''News of the World'' (1977). Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, it remains among rock's most recognisable anthems.

" down the phone to him. Beevers and the rest of The Hendon Mob were invited by

Nic Szeremeta Nic Szeremeta (1943 - 25 January 2021) was a poker player of English and Polish descent, the publisher of ''Poker Europa'' magazine, and creator of the ''Late Night Poker'' television series (and commentator with Jesse May during its first thre ...

to appear in the brand new

Late Night Poker ''Late Night Poker'' is a British television series that helped popularize poker in the 2000s. It used "under the table" cameras that enabled the viewer to see each player's cards. The show originally ran for six series between 1999 and 2002 ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

, and supported the then-questionable idea of using a hole cam to make poker into a spectator sport. Beevers appeared in all 6 series of the show, and is tied with

Dave Colclough David E. Colclough (4 March 1964 – 18 October 2016) was a Welsh poker player. Early life Colclough was born in Carmarthen. Prior to becoming a poker professional, he worked in IT. He left IT after the 2000 World Series of Poker. Poker c ...

for a record 10 appearances. Beevers made the Grand Final in seasons 1, 4 and 5. Beevers was the first member of The Hendon Mob to cash in a

World Series of Poker The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker pl ...

(WSOP) event, placing 14th in the $2,500 pot limit

Texas hold 'em Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is one of the most popular variants of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five community cards are dealt fa ...

event in the

1996 World Series of Poker The 1996 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was a series of poker tournaments held at Binion's Horseshoe. The 1996 World Series featured the first woman to win an open event outright when Barbara Enright won the $2,500 Pot Limit Hold'em event. Prelimi ...

. Beevers also finished as the runner-up both to

Jimmy White James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won three seniors World titles. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his fluid, attacking style of play, White is the 1980 World Amateur Champion, 2009 ...

in the 2003 Poker Million and to Xuyen Pham in The Gaming Club World Poker Championship. He also finished on the TV

bubble Bubble, Bubbles or The Bubble may refer to: Common uses * Bubble (physics), a globule of one substance in another, usually gas in a liquid ** Soap bubble * Economic bubble, a situation where asset prices are much higher than underlying fund ...

of the

World Poker Tour The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand. Since 2002, the World Poker Tour has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the f ...

(WPT)

season 3 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In tempera ...

championship and finished

in the money In finance, moneyness is the relative position of the current price (or future price) of an underlying asset (e.g., a stock) with respect to the strike price of a derivative, most commonly a call option or a put option. Moneyness is firstly a thr ...

of the

2005 WSOP The 2005 World Series of Poker opened play on June 2nd, continuing through the Main Event No Limit World Championship starting on July 7th. The conclusion of the Main Event on July 15th marked the close of play, and the largest prize in sports an ...

$10,000 no limit hold'em main event. His major titles include: * £2500 No Limit Hold'em, Great British Poker Tour – Grand Final 2007 * Hold'em 100, 2000 * £200 pot limit

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest c ...

, British Open 2002 * €1,000 no limit hold'em, Irish Open 2003 * £300 pot limit hold'em, Poker Classics 2003 * $5,000 no limit hold'em, Four Queens Poker Classic 2004 *

Poker Nations Cup The Poker Nations Cup is an international poker tournament, televised on Channel 4 from March 2006 onwards. The series is commentated by Jesse May and Barny Boatman. Padraig Parkinson covered for Boatman in preliminary match 2. The series was film ...

2006 and 2008 * 2007

As of 2009, his total live tournament winnings exceed $2,400,000. He is sponsored by

Full Tilt Poker Full Tilt Poker is an Irish online poker card room and online casino that opened in June 2004. Formerly privately owned by Tiltware, LLC and later by the Rational Entertainment Group, the site was acquired by The Stars Group (then known as Am ...

. Beevers has written over 40 articles on The Hendon Mob's

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and W ...

, the introduction to the European edition of Michael Kaplan's book ''Aces and Kings'' () and two poker lessons for Matthew Hilger's websit
internettexasholdem.com

Personal life

Beevers' nickname "The Elegance" originates from the lifestyle he has been able to live through his poker winnings. He drives a

Porsche 911 The Porsche 911 (pronounced ''Nine Eleven'' or in german: Neunelfer) is a two-door 2+2 high performance rear-engined sports car introduced in September 1964 by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. It has a rear-mounted flat-six engine and ori ...

with the personalised number-plate ''Joe 911''. In fact, Beevers is the only member of The Hendon Mob who kept his original nickname given by

Victoria Coren Victoria Elizabeth Coren Mitchell (' Coren; born ) is a British writer, TV presenter and professional poker player. Coren Mitchell writes weekly columns for '' The Telegraph'' and has hosted the BBC television quiz show ''Only Connect'' since ...

in the first article on them, in the

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

in September 2000. He is a

season ticket A season ticket, or season pass, is a ticket that grants privileges over a defined period of time. History The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' has illustrative quotations which show the term ''season ticket'' used in the United States in 182 ...

holder at

West Ham United F.C. West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

Beevers lives in

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Gre ...

with his wife Claire, whom he married at the Bellagio in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Veg ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

at the conclusion of the 2005 WSOP. He has twin daughters, born 21 February 2006 named Millie and Lola.

References

External links

Joe Beevers Hendon Mob tournament results
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beevers, Joe 1967 births English blackjack players Irish Poker Open winners Living people People from Hendon People from Marylebone The Hendon Mob Alumni of Middlesex University