John Tabatabai is a Welsh professional

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player (

Lisvane Lisvane () is a community in the north of Cardiff, the capital of Wales, located north of the city centre. Lisvane is generally considered to be one of the wealthiest residential areas of Wales, with many properties worth in excess of £1& ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

) based in

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. He was the runner-up to Norwegian poker player Annette Obrestad in the first

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Main Event.

Education

Tabatabai was a Law graduate of the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

Early chess career

Before embarking on a professional poker playing career, Tabatabai was a chess player. He represented Wales in numerous international competitions as a junior.

Poker

World Series of Poker Europe

In the final hand Annette Obrestad had a slight chip lead with 3,851,000 over Tabatabai with 3,381,000. In the small blind flat, called Obrestad's big blind, Obrestad raised the pot from 68,000 to 138,000. Tabatabai flat called the preflop raise which brought the pot to 208,000. The flop was and Obrestad lead out with a 250,000 bet, bringing the pot to 458,000. Tabatabai re-raised an additional 750,000. Obrestad then went all-in, which was called by Tabatabai who had flopped two pair with , however Obrestad had flopped top set with . Tabatabai was in need of two running cards (fives or sixes) to win the hand or two running cards for a straight; the turn brought the , securing Obrestad the win. The irrelevant river card was the . Tabatabai earned £570,150 for his second-place finish.

Other Events

In March 2008 John Tabatabai won the 12th All Africa Poker Tournament collecting the one million Rand ($127,584) pot. In January 2009, John won the $5,000au heads up event in Australia for $120,000au. As of November 2010, his live tournament earnings exceed $1,360,000. His lone cash at the WSOP accounts for $912,240 of those winnings.

References

External links

Card Player profileHendon Mob profileWPT profileWSOP profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tabatabai, John Alumni of the University of Reading Welsh poker players Living people Year of birth missing (living people)