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Poker Family Tree
Poker Family Tree
July 04, 2006
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- Jennifer Harman once lived with Todd Brunson, who is the son of none other than Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson. She also dated Howard Lederer for a time. Lederer is, of course, the brother to Annie Duke who used to be married to Ben Duke but has recently been dating Joe Reitman, the ex-husband of actress/poker player Shannon Elizabeth.
- Ms. Harman, whose best friend is none other than the Canadian phenom Daniel Negreanu, fell in love with a handsome Italian-born hair dresser named Marco Traniello a few years ago. They got married and now Marco has become a part-time poker pro as well. He did very well at the 2005 WSOP and is expected to repeat his performance this year.
- Marco Traniello and Jennifer Harman aren't the only married poker pros out there. There's Robert and Olga Varkonyi. Robert is a former WSOP Main Event Champ and Olga made an impressive run at the Main Event in 2005. Michael Mizrachi, the Grinder, and his fiancee, Adalilly "Lily" Elviro have two children together and have burned up the tables on the WPT in the past year or so. Marsha Waggoner, who was at the final table of Ladies Night III (WPT) with Mrs. Grinder, is married to Kenna James. Cecilia Reyes Mortensen was also at that same final table and is the lovely wife of Carlos 'El Matador' Mortensen, himself a former World Champion.
- The winner of Ladies Night III was none other than Jennifer Tilly. Jennifer Tilly is an Academy-award nominated actress (Bullets Over Broadway) and the lovely girlfriend of Phil 'The Unabomber' Laak. Laak was also the former roommate of Antonio Esfandiari.
- Kathy Liebert, who is among the world's greatest poker tournament players ever and is on the short list of many to be the first woman Main Event champ ever, used to live with Tom McEvoy, author and former Main Event champ.
- Barry Greenstein mentors Mimi Tran but did you know that he's also the father of Joe Sebok, a talented young pro who did very well in 2005's World Series of Poker? Gus Hansen is one of Isabelle Mercier's mentors. Mercier used to work at the Aviation Club de Paris and learned as much as she could about the game from pros like Gus and Paul Magriel.
So, as you can see, the poker world is it's on little society, a microcosm of life and love and friends and, in some cases, foes. When you're watching the pros on TV remember that they're just people who live and love and play one mean game of poker. They're just like us in many ways, and - maybe someday their children will go into the 'family business' just like Joe Sebok and Todd Brunson have done?
