Daniel Alaei is a respected top poker pro who has often shunned the spotlight. Although he specializes in cash games, he has won three non NLHE WSOP bracelets, in 2006, 2009, and 2010. Alaei has had three deep runs in the WSOP Main Event, 25th in 2007, 140th in 2005, and 59th in 2004. Alaei won the 2009 WPT Doyle Brunson 5 Diamond Classic defeating Scotty Nguyen and Josh Arieh on his way to the $1,428,430 first prize. Alaei has live tournament winnings that exceed $5 million. Alaei was born in 1983 in Santa Fe Springs, California and splits his time between Los Angeles, California and Las Vegas, Nevada.

Things you might not know:
  • Alaei didn't care for school much growing up and collected baseball and basketball cards, eventually running a highly successful sports card business with his father. The family moved closer to L.A. to take advantage of the better market for their collected cards.
  • Alaei once sold a mint Tiger Woods card for $72,000 while in high school.
  • Alaei barely attended high school, and ended up being home schooled for 11th and 12th grade so he could graduate.
  • Alaei started playing poker in his late teens, working his way up the cash game ladder steadily.
  • Alaei's first tournament success came in 2003 on a San Francisco trip where he finished 18th.
  • Alaei's first victory came the next year in a 2004 Legends of Poker preliminary event.
  • Alaei moved to San Francisco to play cash games with the likes of Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak, Gabe Thaler and Michael Binger.
  • After some success at the 2005 Five Star World Poker Classic at the Bellagio, Alaei moved into the Bellagio playing cash games every day and remained for nearly a year.
  • Alaei appeared on several seasons of High Stakes Poker with the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Sam Farha and Phil Ivey.
  • Alaei played on PokerStars Big Game with Barry Greenstein, Jason Mercier and others.
  • final table of the $50,000 Players Championship, finishing in seventh for $221,105.

Daniel Alaei, known as "steamraise" on PokerStars and "fakesky" on Full Tilt is a regular in the high stakes online games. He has always been a quiet and humble player. He has commented that he wished all young online wizards should have to take a class in poker etiquette before entering the world of live high stakes poker.

Alaei vids include a video interview after his latest WSOP win, Big Game clip, and some background and strategy discussion:


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