Joe Sebok

Although Joe Sebok comes from a poker family – his stepfather is Barry Greenstein – he didn’t take an interest in the game for a long time. In fact, Joe admitted that as late as 2004, he didn’t know that a flush beats a straight. He certainly seems to know now.

Joe originally started out on a very different path, graduating from UC Berkeley into the dot-com boom of the 1990’s. However, like so many others, he fell victim to the bursting bubble and, after being laid off from dot-coms four times in quick succession, he decided to just “check out” and travel for a while.

He returned from those travels not sure what he wanted to do next – but he was pretty sure that he didn’t want to return to corporate America. All it took was a short conversation with his stepfather. He asked Barry if he thought professional poker could be a new career. You can guess the answer.

Joe burst onto the poker scene at the 2005 WSOP, cashing three times and reaching two final tables. Since then, he has gone on to earn more than $650,000 in live tournament winnings, including three back-to-back first-place finishes in early 2006.

Away from the poker table, Joe is co-host of PokerWire Radio. He also gained some notoriety during the 2006 WSOP when, as a result of a prop bet with co-host (and Full Tilt Poker pro) Gavin Smith, he came to the Main Event dressed in a different costume each day. If you saw the 2006 WSOP coverage on ESPN, you couldn’t miss the footage of Joe dressed up as a bear, Spiderman and, unfortunately (for everyone), Wonder Woman.

When Joe’s not masquerading as a superhero or dominating the tournament circuit, you can find him doing what he does best at the poker table or behind a PokerWire microphone.