Nicknamed "Thunder", Thomas Keller is a professional poker player, residing in Arizona and Las Vegas.
Born in 1980 in Michigan, Keller graduated from Stanford University with a degree in economics in 2002 after earlier scoring 1570 on his SATs. It was at Stanford where he began playing poker, after watching the movie Rounders.
Keller moved to Las Vegas and started playing professionally after he finished college. At first, his father, a professor, and his mother, a publishing house executive, weren't thrilled about it but they felt better after they saw him on TV making money.
Keller scored his first big tournament win in 2003 at the Bellagio's Five-Diamond World Poker Classic. He won the $2,500 No-Limit Hold 'em event after defeating Allen Cunningham in the heads-up confrontation and took home $281,525.
The next year, he won his first WSOP bracelet in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold 'em event by defeating Martin De Knijff in head-up play, winning $382,020.
He made the final table of the WPT Young Guns of Poker event during Season III, finishing 4th and also represented Team America in the Poker Nations Cup.
Keller cashed twice at the 2008 WSOP, including finishing in 61st place out of 6,844 entries (top 1% of the field) in the Main Event, earning $115,800.
In 2009 he finished in 3rd place in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event, earning $280,852. He has 5 WSOP cashes for total WSOP earnings of $789,127.
Like fellow poker pro David Williams, Keller credits his experience of playing Magic: The Gathering as being helpful to his poker career. He has also been a columnist for Card Player Magazine since 2004. Keller lost over 200 pounds after having gastric bypass surgery.
He credits the internet for enabling the young poker players of today to be so dominant, saying that he has probably played more hands of poker than Doyle Brunson.
As of 2010, his total live tournament winnings exceed $1,200,000.
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HPG ADMIN on February 27, 2013