Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari was born December 8, 1978 in Tehran, Iran. He is a very popular professional poker player much of this popularity coming from the chip and card tricks he did for TV. At the age of nineteen Antonio Esfandiari became a professional magician. Doing card tricks lead him to playing Hold'em, and in 2004 his tournament poker career jumpstarted when he won nearly $1.4 million at the Commerce Casino. Later that year, he won a World Series of Poker bracelet in Pot-Limit Texas Hold 'em.
Throughout his career, Antonio Esfandiari has live tournament winnings over $2,700,000.
As one of poker television's greatest stars, Esfandiari played in the second and third seasons of the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament. He took 2nd during his second try in the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament, which was a huge improvement over his last place finish the first time. A regular player in the Game Show Network's High Stakes Poker television show. Antonio is very close friends with Phil "The Unabomber" Laak, and is co-starring in the TV show, I Bet You, on MOJO HD with The Unabomber.
Antonio Esfandiari amazed a couple of dozen onlookers including myself during the 2006 World Series of Poker, when in a cash game at the Rio Hotel and Casino Antonio was in a big no limit holdem hand heads up against 2005 main event champion Joseph Hachem. During the hand, Joe Hachem bluffed at the pot several times for a total of about $15,000 while Antonio called him down with a pocket pair of sevens. The great read that Antonio had on Hachem during that hand was something that fascinated everyone who was around the table and proved to me that Antonio Esfandiari skills will keep him in the spotlight for years to come.
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