Tommy Garza

Birthplace
Texas

Hometown
Reno, NV

Total Winnings
$21,000

If it hadn't been for his wife's flower shop, Tommy Garza might never have played poker. Across the street from the little shop sat the Garden City Casino. Whether it was a wife's intuition or a pronounced longing in Garza's eyes, his sweetheart recognized that her husband wanted to get in the game. Since the Silicon Valley sales guru had never played anything but Seven-Card Stud, his wife bought him a book on hold'em. Before long, the Bay area venture capitalist playing cards. A move to Reno made poker even more available for Garza. With much of his business life running itself, Garza discovered he had little else to do but play poker. So, that's what he did.

Never one to turn down a job, Garza turned poker into his new profession. Like everything else he'd done up to that point, he was a success. He discovered that his lifetime of sales experience translated well to the poker table. His ability to read people with cards seemed just as easy as deciding what people wanted when he was a salesman. Garza made the final table of the WPT Gold Rush event in the first season of the World Poker Tour. Since then, he has gone on to cash many more times in other events, including making a final table appearance in a World Series of Poker event.