Tom McEvoy
Encyclopedia
Thomas K. McEvoy is a professional poker
player and author. He is best known for his win in the 1983 World Series of Poker main event.
, but after he was laid off from his job, he took up poker full time in 1978. He first learned to play poker when he was five years old and would regularly get in trouble for playing it in grade school.
heads-up to win the tournament.
McEvoy won the 1983 World Series of Poker
Main Event. He was the first winner to earn his buy-in through a satellite tournament
. His heads-up matchup with Rod Peate
was the longest heads-up battle in WSOP history before being surpassed during the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E event in 2006 by Chip Reese
and Andy Bloch
.
Since his two bracelet wins in 1983, McEvoy has gone on to win two more WSOP bracelets. He won the Razz tournament in 1986, defeating Alma McClelland
, and a Limit Omaha tournament in 1992, defeating 1986 world champion Berry Johnston
. But his luck in the WSOP Main Event since his championship win has not been so good. McEvoy's only other main event cash since 1983 was in the 2006 WSOP, when he finished in 371st place, earning $34,636.
In March 2006, Tom McEvoy won the third ever Professional Poker Tour
event beating a field of pros-only at the Bay 101
casino. He defeated a final table that included fellow WSOP bracelet winners, Toto Leonidas
and Hoyt Corkins
.
McEvoy is staunchly opposed to smoking. In 1998 he helped organize the first tournament where smoking was not allowed. There was much reluctance, but the tournament still attracted a large number of players, and therefore confirmed the viability of having non-smoking tournaments. Also, in 1998, McEvoy won the annual Ventura County poker championship, with fellow accountant, Phil Palmquist, finishing in third place. Palmquist began this Omaha tournament with a Royal Flush, which brought him to the final table as Chip Leader, only to be "worn down" by McEvoy. In 2002 McEvoy convinced Becky Binion Behnen to make the WSOP a non-smoking tournament by agreeing to give Behnen poker lessons.
McEvoy has authored or coauthored over a dozen books on poker with other players such as T. J. Cloutier
, Brad Daugherty
, Don Vines, Dag Palovic
and Max Stern
. He is a columnist for CardPlayer Magazine and a representative of PokerStars.com
, where he can be seen playing under his own name.
On Sunday May 31, 2009, Tom McEvoy became the winner of the WSOP's first Champions Invitational, outlasting 19 other former Main Event champions. He defeated 2002 world champion, Robert Varkonyi
in the heads-up play to win the tournament. The first prize was a Classic 1970 Corvette
and the inaugural Binion Cup, presented by Jack Binion
, in honour of his father, Benny Binion
, the founder of the WSOP and Binion's Horseshoe
, the original home of the World Series.
As of 2010, his total live tournament winnings exceed $2,900,000. His 38 cashes at the WSOP account for $1,297,410 of those winnings.
McEvoy resides in Las Vegas
and has three children.
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
player and author. He is best known for his win in the 1983 World Series of Poker main event.
Early life
McEvoy was born and raised in Michigan. He was an accountantAccountant
An accountant is a practitioner of accountancy or accounting , which is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and others make decisions about allocating resources.The Big Four auditors are the largest...
, but after he was laid off from his job, he took up poker full time in 1978. He first learned to play poker when he was five years old and would regularly get in trouble for playing it in grade school.
Poker career
McEvoy first cashed in the WSOP in 1982, finishing in 6th place in the $1,000 Razz event. The following year, he won his first World Series of Poker bracelet in the $1,000 Limit Hold'em event, defeating Irish professional poker player Donnacha O'DeaDonnacha O'Dea
Donnacha "The Don" O'Dea is an Irish professional poker player. In his youth he was a swimmer, and represented Ireland in the 1968 Olympics. He was also the first Irish swimmer to swim 100m in less than one minute...
heads-up to win the tournament.
McEvoy won the 1983 World Series of Poker
1983 World Series of Poker
The 1983 World Series of Poker was held May 9th to May 12th, 1983 at Binion's Horseshoe.-Preliminary events:-Main Event:There were 108 entrants to the main event. Each paid $10,000 to enter the tournament. Doyle Brunson fell just short in his attempt to win the main event for a third time when he...
Main Event. He was the first winner to earn his buy-in through a satellite tournament
Satellite tournament
A satellite tournament is either a minor tournament or event on a competitive sporting tour or one of a group of such tournaments that form a series played in the same country or region.-Poker:...
. His heads-up matchup with Rod Peate
Rod Peate
Rod Peate is a poker player from Downey, CaliforniaIn the 1983 World Series of Poker, Peate finished runner-up to Tom McEvoy in the Main Event. Since then, Peate has cashed in the Main Event four times: 1987, 1990, 1997, and 1998....
was the longest heads-up battle in WSOP history before being surpassed during the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E event in 2006 by Chip Reese
Chip Reese
David Edward Reese , more commonly known as Chip Reese, was an American professional poker player and gambler from Centerville, Ohio...
and Andy Bloch
Andy Bloch
Andrew Elliot Bloch is a professional poker player. He holds two electrical engineering degrees from MIT and a JD from Harvard Law School.-Poker:...
.
Since his two bracelet wins in 1983, McEvoy has gone on to win two more WSOP bracelets. He won the Razz tournament in 1986, defeating Alma McClelland
Alma McClelland
Alma McClelland was a World Series of Poker champion in the 1989 $500 Ladies - Limit 7 Card Stud.As of 2008, her total WSOP tournament winnings exceed $63,960 ....
, and a Limit Omaha tournament in 1992, defeating 1986 world champion Berry Johnston
Berry Johnston
Berry Enfield Johnston is an American professional poker player. He is best known as the 1986 World Champion, but he has also won four other bracelets at the World Series of Poker in addition to cashes and wins in many other tournaments throughout his career.- Poker career :Johnston won the 1986...
. But his luck in the WSOP Main Event since his championship win has not been so good. McEvoy's only other main event cash since 1983 was in the 2006 WSOP, when he finished in 371st place, earning $34,636.
In March 2006, Tom McEvoy won the third ever Professional Poker Tour
Professional Poker Tour
The Professional Poker Tour was a series of televised poker tournaments, spinning off from the World Poker Tour television series. It billed itself as the first professional poker league, and was limited to players who have established themselves on the World Poker Tour, World Series of Poker,...
event beating a field of pros-only at the Bay 101
Bay 101
Bay 101 is a cardroom in San Jose, California. Like other California cardrooms, Bay 101 offers poker cash games and tournaments as well as special "California" style table games....
casino. He defeated a final table that included fellow WSOP bracelet winners, Toto Leonidas
Toto Leonidas
Alfredo C. "Toto" Leonidas is an American Poker player with over $3,200,000 in live tournament lifetime winnings. His 24 cashes as the WSOP account for $812,218 of those winnings....
and Hoyt Corkins
Hoyt Corkins
Hoyt Bricken Corkins is an American professional poker player.He also has three children in Chelsei Corkins, Brittney Corkins, and Ashley Roundtre...
.
McEvoy is staunchly opposed to smoking. In 1998 he helped organize the first tournament where smoking was not allowed. There was much reluctance, but the tournament still attracted a large number of players, and therefore confirmed the viability of having non-smoking tournaments. Also, in 1998, McEvoy won the annual Ventura County poker championship, with fellow accountant, Phil Palmquist, finishing in third place. Palmquist began this Omaha tournament with a Royal Flush, which brought him to the final table as Chip Leader, only to be "worn down" by McEvoy. In 2002 McEvoy convinced Becky Binion Behnen to make the WSOP a non-smoking tournament by agreeing to give Behnen poker lessons.
McEvoy has authored or coauthored over a dozen books on poker with other players such as T. J. Cloutier
T. J. Cloutier
Thomas James "T.J." Cloutier is a professional poker player from Richardson, Texas. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2006.-Early years:...
, Brad Daugherty
Brad Daugherty (poker player)
Brad Daugherty is a professional poker player.Daugherty began playing poker in 1969 on a high school trip. Following high school he worked in the construction industry, but after hearing of large prize money for tournament winnings, in 1978 he moved to Reno, Nevada...
, Don Vines, Dag Palovic
Dag Palovic
Dag Palovič is a Slovak professional poker player, businessman and a former TV host. Since 1 January 2011, he is a member of PokerStars Team Pro, first and as of October 2011 only sponsored poker player from Slovakia...
and Max Stern
Max Stern (poker player)
Dr. Max Stern is a professional poker player, pediatrician and author.He is the co-author of Championship Stud, with Tom McEvoy and Linda Johnson. Stern contributed to the sections on Seven-card stud and Seven Card Stud tournament and ring game play.Stern is considered to be a Texas hold 'em,...
. He is a columnist for CardPlayer Magazine and a representative of PokerStars.com
PokerStars
PokerStars is the largest online poker cardroom in the world. PokerStars' satellite tournaments produced the 2003 World Series of Poker champion, Chris Moneymaker. 1983 champion Tom McEvoy, 2005 champion Joe Hachem, 2009 champion Joe Cada and 2010 champion Jonathan Duhamel and others also represent...
, where he can be seen playing under his own name.
On Sunday May 31, 2009, Tom McEvoy became the winner of the WSOP's first Champions Invitational, outlasting 19 other former Main Event champions. He defeated 2002 world champion, Robert Varkonyi
Robert Varkonyi
Robert Varkonyi is an American poker player, best known for winning the main event of the 2002 World Series of Poker.-Early years:Varkonyi was born in and raised in New York...
in the heads-up play to win the tournament. The first prize was a Classic 1970 Corvette
Chevrolet Corvette
The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car by the Chevrolet division of General Motors that has been produced in six generations. The first model, a convertible, was designed by Harley Earl and introduced at the GM Motorama in 1953 as a concept show car. Myron Scott is credited for naming the car after...
and the inaugural Binion Cup, presented by Jack Binion
Jack Binion
Jack Binion is an American casino operator. Jack is the son of casino magnate Benny Binion and worked for his father at Binion's Horseshoe, a casino and hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.- Biography :...
, in honour of his father, Benny Binion
Benny Binion
Lester Ben "Benny" Binion was a well-known American casino owner, mobster, poker enthusiast, and convicted felon.-Early history:...
, the founder of the WSOP and Binion's Horseshoe
Binion's Horseshoe
Binion's Horseshoe, also known as the Horseshoe Casino or simply The Horseshoe, was a hotel and casino located in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada on what is now the Fremont Street Experience. The casino was named for its founder, Benny Binion and had 366 rooms, three restaurants and a rooftop pool.The...
, the original home of the World Series.
As of 2010, his total live tournament winnings exceed $2,900,000. His 38 cashes at the WSOP account for $1,297,410 of those winnings.
McEvoy resides in Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
and has three children.
World Series of Poker Bracelets
| Year | Tournament | Prize (US$) |
|---|---|---|
| 1983 1983 World Series of Poker The 1983 World Series of Poker was held May 9th to May 12th, 1983 at Binion's Horseshoe.-Preliminary events:-Main Event:There were 108 entrants to the main event. Each paid $10,000 to enter the tournament. Doyle Brunson fell just short in his attempt to win the main event for a third time when he... |
$1,000 Limit Hold'em | $117,000 |
| 1983 | $10,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship | $580,000 |
| 1986 1986 World Series of Poker -Preliminary events:-Main Event:There were 141 entrants to the main event. Each paid $10,000 to enter the tournament.-Final table:-Other High Finishes:NB: This list is restricted to top 30 finishers with an existing Wikipedia entry.... |
$1,000 Razz Razz (poker) Razz is a form of stud poker that is normally played for ace-to-five low . The object of Razz is to make the lowest possible five-card hand from the seven cards you are dealt. In Razz, straights and flushes do not count against the player for low, and the ace usually plays low... |
$52,400 |
| 1992 1992 World Series of Poker The 1992 World Series of Poker was held at Binion's Horseshoe. Among notable participants was actor Telly Savalas of Kojak fame.-Preliminary events:-Main Event:... |
$1,500 Limit Omaha | $79,200 |