Isai Scheinberg Wins UKIPT Isle of Man High Roller

Having sold his business in August for a whopping $4.9 billion, PokerStars founder Isai Scheinberg is obviously still in love with the game and last Sunday entered the UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) £2,200 High Roller tournament on the Isle of Man.
Despite attracting a small field of just 15 players, the Canadian entrepreneur then proceeded to showcase his poker skills by taking down the event for £13,850 ($22,253), and beating a number of pros along the way, including Denmark’s Mickey Petersen. While the money isn’t even a drop in the ocean for the former IBM Canada senior programmer, the tournament was Scheinberg’s first career win, according to thehendonmob.com, with his previous biggest score coming in 2008 at the EPT Monte Carlo €1,070 NL event, where he finished in 8th place for €11,400 ($18,039).
Isai Scheinberg’s victory also presented a rare opportunity to photograph the 68 year-old PokerStars founder, who is still blacklisted from doing business in the U.S. market and continues to have an indictment hanging over his head. In fact, Isai Scheinberg has been doing an excellent job of lying low and hadn’t been photographed in public for years, which explains the rush for friends, competitors and just about anyone related to PokerStars to crowd into the frame and have their picture taken with him.
Naturally, news of Isai Scheinberg’s win spread quickly and as English journalist and broadcaster James Hartigan subsequently tweeted:
“I’ve witnessed many great poker moments. Isai Scheinberg winning the #UKIPTIoM HR in front of scores of PokerStars staff ranks pretty high.”
Whether we will see Scheinberg competing at more poker tournaments over the coming period remains to be seen, but in the meantime the retired billionaire seemed delighted to win the event and, judging from the photo, seemed content to bask in the limelight for a while..