Brian Rast Enjoys A Glorious Year Of Poker

With so many big poker stories making the headlines in 2011, the accomplishments this year of Brian Rast have been somewhat overlooked. However, the 30 year-old pro has enjoyed an ‘annus miribilis’ which deserves recapping.
Before this year, the Stanford University Math drop-out was a relatively unknown to casual fans of tournament poker. Brian Rast was more well known as a high stakes cash game pro, regularly playing PLO at stakes of $500/$1,000, or walking away a million dollar winner from Macau’s Big Game.
Nevertheless, Rast still enjoys  entering the odd tournament and leading up to this year’s incredible run had earned a respectable $152,630 in 2007, $124,433 in 2008, $332,940 in 2009, and $108,093 in 2010.
Then suddenly, the Las Vegas resident hit top form while attending the 2011 World Series Of Poker, notching up not only a massive $1,952,443 in winnings, but also adding an incredible two WSOP bracelets to his impressive poker resume. Those wins included victory in the $1,500 PLO event for $227,232, followed by a 1st place finish in the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship for $1,720,328.
Previously, Brian Rast confessed that he wasn’t at all keen on travelling around the country to play in various tournaments, which he said he found neither  profitable nor a good way to live. However, playing locally in Las Vegas is a different matter and prior to Black Friday he was able to sharpen his instincts online, notching-up $417,684 in winnings under the screen name ‘tsarrast.’ As he explains:
“I spent about 3-4 months playing the online Sunday tournaments about 3 years ago, and learned a lot about the adjustments you have to make.”
All elements of his tournament game then came together at the 2011 WSOP in Las Vegas, eventually leading to his becoming the only two-time bracelet winner of this year’s competition. Summing-up his thoughts on the game which has now brought him fame as well as fortune, Brian Rast surmised:
“In many ways playing poker is like opening a small business.  Most will fail after 5 years, and a few blow up and become very successful.  A mix of skill and luck determines your fate.”