Nick Schulman (born September 18, 1984, in New York City) 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 and commentator.
Early life
Schulman grew up in New York City, and began playing pool at the famous Amsterdam Billiards. He was mentored by several of the best players in the NYC area from ages 13–19, at which point his focus switched to poker.
Poker career
Schulman began to play poker in 2002, at the age of 18, and by the age of 19 went professional. In 2005, at the age of 21, he won the
fourth season 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 ...
(WPT) World Poker Finals
poker tournament
A poker tournament is a tournament where players compete by playing poker. It can feature as few as two players playing on a single table (called a " heads-up" tournament), and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on thousands of tabl ...
, winning $2,167,500, a
record for a regular season event on the WPT. He also became the youngest winner of a WPT event.
Less than a month later, Schulman finished 4th in the
World Series of Poker circuit event in
Atlantic City
Atlantic City, sometimes referred to by its initials A.C., is a Jersey Shore seaside resort city in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.
Atlantic City comprises the second half of the Atlantic City- Hammonton metropolitan sta ...
, winning an additional $74,495. In April 2006, Schulman won the WPT Battle of Champions IV event, eliminating
Freddy Deeb
Kassem Ibrahim "Freddy" Deeb (; born 27 November 1955 in Beirut, Lebanon) is a Lebanese professional poker player.
Early life
Deeb was attending Utah State University when civil war broke out in Lebanon in 1975. He lost contact with his parents ...
to take the title. Prior to winning the WPT event, Schulman had regularly played poker on the
internet
The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
.
On June 12, 2009, Schulman won his first WSOP bracelet in the $10,000 World Championship No Limit Deuce to Seven Draw event, defeating a final table that included
John Juanda
Johnson "John" Juanda (born 8 July 1971) is an Indonesian professional poker player of Chinese descent based in Tokyo, Japan. He has won five World Series of Poker bracelets.
Personal life
Juanda was born into a Hoklo family in Medan, North ...
,
David Benyamine, and
Michael Binger. In July 2012, he won his second WSOP bracelet in the same event, taking home $294,321 in winnings.
Schulman appeared on the MTV show "World of Jenks" in September 2010. In October 2018, he also made an appearance on PokerGO’s revived version of Poker After Dark and after the retirement of
Gabe Kaplan
Gabriel Weston Kaplan (born March 31, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, and professional poker player. He played the title character in the 1970s sitcom '' Welcome Back, Kotter''. He later became a professional poker player and a commentat ...
, he replaced him in
High Stakes Poker
''High Stakes Poker'' is an American cash game poker television program. The poker variant played on the show is no limit Texas hold 'em. The first four seasons ran from January 16, 2006 to December 17, 2007 on GSN. The next three seasons ran f ...
in the second episode of Season 10.
During the 2019 WSOP Main Event, Schulman was doing commentary for the coverage by
ESPN
ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
and PokerGO. Schulman won his fifth career WSOP bracelet at the 2024 WSOP in the $25,000 High Roller Event for $1,667,842.
He is a regular player in the world’s most famous super high stakes cash game room Bobby’s Room, recently officially renamed “Legends Room”, at the Bellagio, in Las Vegas.
As of 2024, his total career live tournament winnings exceed $20,200,000.
A "P" following a year denotes bracelet(s) won during the World Series of Poker Paradise
Poker Go Tour Titles
References
External links
Liquidpoker.net interviewCard Player profileHendon Mob profilePokerNews profileWPT profileWSOP profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schulman, Nick
1984 births
American poker players
Jewish American sportspeople
Living people
World Poker Tour winners
World Series of Poker bracelet winners
21st-century American Jews