World Poker Tour

Mike Wattel

Hometown
Phoenix, AZ

Total Winnings
$324,895

Poker seemed to be in the cards for Mike Wattel from an early age. He learned the game in junior high school and played with friends on weekends for fun. When he entered college, he began playing poker for money, and since no particular career path interested him, the opportunity to play poker professionally took its own course. Mike took his skills from the cash games in Los Angeles and Las Vegas into tournaments and found success there, too. Beginning in 1994, he was cashing in tournaments on a fairly regular basis to supplement his cash game income. And in his first World Series of Poker in 1999, he won a coveted bracelet in the $1,500 Omaha eight-or-better event for his biggest prize to that point - $134,865. Since then, Mike has cashed in the WSOP fourteen times, making several final tables and showing his diverse skills in a wide range of events from no-limit hold'em to H.O.R.S.E. Being in poker for about fifteen years, he has seen many ups and downs and doesn't know how many more years he will continue to play for a living. But a final table appearance on the World Poker Tour at the World Championship in 2007 may have changed his tune when he won over $300,000. He has proven his abilities and plays regularly with some of the best in the game, and he is one of those recognizable names in poker that fans hope will stick around for another few years.