Eric Froehlich (born February 9, 1984, in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

) is an American professional

poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...

player, professional Magic: The Gathering player, and member of the Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame. He lives in

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

, with his wife, Magic: The Gathering streamer Athena Huey. As of 2023, Froehlich's total live poker tournament winnings exceed $2,682,733. His 48 cashes at the WSOP account for $1,930,090 of those winnings.

Early life

Froehlich attended Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. Froehlich began playing poker in high school and got involved in

online poker Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 t ...

at the age of 18. He dropped out of the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

around April 2005 to become a professional poker player.

World Series of Poker

He entered a World Series of Poker (WSOP) tournament in

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

; Froehlich won a bracelet in the $1,500 limit

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

event, making $303,908. At the time, this made him the youngest player to ever win a bracelet. Froehlich won a second bracelet at the 2006 WSOP tournament, in the $1,500 pot limit Omaha hold 'em, Omaha w/rebuys event, making $299,675. In the final hand, his defeated Sherkhan Farnood's on a board of . Shortly after Froehlich's status as the youngest bracelet winner of all time, he was overtaken by Jeff Madsen during the 2006 World Series of Poker and Steve Billirakis at the 2007 World Series of Poker. In September 2007 at the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe, Norwegian poker player Annette Obrestad won the £10,000 No-Limit Texas Hold'em Championship at the age of 18 to become the youngest World Series of Poker bracelet winner.

World Series of Poker bracelets

Magic: The Gathering career

In addition to playing poker, Froehlich is also a prominent player of the Magic: The Gathering trading card game. Froehlich was a keen sports player when younger, involved in

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

, but suffered an injury and got involved in Magic: The Gathering, like his later friend David Williams. He has made the Top 8 of four Pro Tours and fourteen Grand Prix events. Several of Froehlich's Grand Prix Top 8s have come in team events, in which he has teamed with such prominent professional players as Kamiel Cornelissen, Jon Finkel, Brian Kibler and Luis Scott-Vargas. In 2015, Froehlich was voted into the Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame.

Accomplishments

Other accomplishments * Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame Class of 2015

References

External links

PokerSourceOnline article

PokerListings.com interviewCard Player profile

Hendon Mob profileWPT profileWSOP profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Froehlich, Eric 1984 births American poker players World Series of Poker bracelet winners American Magic: The Gathering players People from Philadelphia People from Las Vegas Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology alumni Living people