T. J. Cloutier

Sports and poker are an odd mix. But if you want to find a true-blue star athlete in the world of poker, look no further than T.J. Cloutier, the poker pro from Albany, California who was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2006.

Cloutier attended the University of California at Berkeley on an athletic scholarship and became a star athlete in baseball and football. In 1959, he helped his team reach the Rose Bowl championship. Unfortunately, financial problems in the family prompted him to leave school early without getting his college degree.

The good news is, with the way he plays poker, Cloutier has never really needed that college degree. He holds the record (tied with Phil Hellmuth) for having the most number of World Series of Poker (WSOP) final table finishes, with 39. As of 2007, his career live tournament winnings were more than $8.8 million.

Cloutier has six WSOP championship bracelets to his credit. The tournaments he has won include 1987 $1,000 Limit Omaha Hi ($72,000), 1994 $1,500 Limit Omaha 8 or Better ($135,000), 1994 $2,500 Pot Limit Texas Hold'em ($163,000), 1998 $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi ($136,000), 2004 $1,500 Seven Card Razz ($90,500) and 2005 $5,000 No Limit Hold'em ($657,100).

And to think that Cloutier almost pursued a different career than poker. After he left college, he joined the US Army, then became a professional football player for Toronto and Montreal in the Canadian Football League before injury ended his athletic career. He then tried other things, opening up his own food company with his savings from football, working on the oil rigs in Texas and other matters. Finally, after he failed to find anything that truly captured his heart, he decided to make a living out of the favorite skill he learned in the army -- poker.

He started in Texas, where many poker careers got their start, including poker legends like Texas Dolly Brunson and Amarillo Slim Preston. Perhaps it's the extreme heat in Texas that makes such players cool under pressure. For whatever reason, Cloutier discovered that he was quite adept at playing poker. In fact, he was soon earning more from poker than from his other jobs.

Today, Cloutier is held in high regard by his peers. The 1990 WSOP main event champion, Monsour Matloubi, calls Cloutier "the number one no-limit poker player in the world." WSOP tournament coordinator Jack McClelland, who has a magnificent eye for talent, says "T. J. is one of the very best all-around players on the tournament trail today."

Despite the fact that he has yet to win the poker world championship (he was second place twice), Cloutier's name is likely to be mentioned in any well-informed discussion on the best poker players in the world. The other players know his pedigree and fear him on th table.

Overall, he was won more than 40 titles in major tournaments. Cloutier also ruled the prestigious $10,000 No-Limit Hold 'em championship at the Diamond Jim Brady for three consecutive years, a record that still stands.

The other skill that poker players admire about Cloutier is his ability to tell a good poker story. After more than 20 years in Texas backrooms and poker's hot spots, he sure has a lot to tell. Cloutier has certainly seen and done it all, earning great respect along the way. He is probably the last of that dying breed of legendary road gamblers who gave poker its mystique and dark charisma.