Seat 6: Ari Engel, 28, Brooklyn, New York – 1,670,000
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Back in his college days, PokerStars qualifier Ari Engel used to watch his roommate play online poker, but he didn’t start pursuing the sport himself until after graduation. When he finally threw a few bucks on to a poker site, it only took ten days of gains to convince him to quit his job and take up the game full-time.
Since then, Engel has earned close to $2.5 million online, at one point climbing to the very top of the online player rankings. He's also begun to amass a respectable live record that includes two WSOP Circuit rings and more than $500,000 in cashes. Things have gone so well for Engel that he's recently begun to give lessons on tournament poker and his students' results indicate that "BodogAri" knows how to teach the game.
Now based in Canada, Engel won his seat on PokerStars. This is his first ever EPT.
Bio courtesy of PokerStars.