GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 13 - June 2010

But just 15 months later, after Chris Moneymaker’s win at the 2003WSOP helped create a boom in tournament poker, Esfandiari became the youngest player to become an instant millionaire in a poker tournament. He bested a fieldof 382at the2004LAPokerClassic,winning the$10,000buy-inevent to takehomenearly$1.4million. That summer, EsfandiariwonaWSOPbracelet inaPot-LimitHold’emevent, becomingoneof just ahandful of players towin aWPT tournament andaWSOPbracelet in the sameyear. In2005, Esfandiariwas third at theNationalHeadsUpPokerChampi- onship, finished third inWPTandWSOPCircuitevents, andmade his secondWSOP final table.Hehas been a stapleon televised poker events ever since, and a deep run in last year’sWSOP MainEvent (24th) continued toadvancehis credentials. It’sno surprise, then, thatVictoryPokerCEODanFleysh- man calls Esfandiari “The Face” of his new venture. And it’s a title that’s stuck to the32-year-oldpokerpro. “All the other pros onTeamVictoryhavenow literally started calling me ‘Face,’” says Esfandiari. “I’ve had more airtime than anybody else, sowe joke about it all the time.” WhileEsfandiarimaybe the faceof the franchise, the real secret of the online room’s early success is themanbehind the sceneswho signedhim. Fleyshman knew he needed something big to getVictoryPoker off theground. It turnedout that something big lived in the same Las Ve- gas condominium complexhe calledhome. Fleyshman and Esfandiari have known each other for several years, dat- ing back to a poker seminar that Fleyshman attendedwhereEs- fandiariwasoneof the teach- ers. Fleyshman, who lived in San Diego at the time, had built a business from the ground up starting in high school by getting a trademark on the phrase The Face of Things to Come