James Van Alstyne
February 23, 2010.
James Gibson Van Alstyne (born 1966 in Columbus, Georgia) is an American professional poker player based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Van Alstyne grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, and he graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School. After high school, Van Alstyne attended Stanford University, where he learned to play poker.
Van Alstyne was formerly employed as an engineer before becoming a professional blackjack player, using card-counting techniques to give himself an edge. He wears a baseball cap to disguise himself from casino security, and continues to wear the cap whilst playing poker.
Van Alstyne made three money finishes in Omaha poker tournaments at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) between 1994 and 1998.[1] In 1999, he made his first money finish in the main event, finishing in 16th place.[2] Van Alstyne finished in the "TV bubble" position (7th) of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Aruba Ultimate Poker Classic event in September 2005.[3] He went on to make his first WPT TV final table in the season 4 championship event, finishing in 5th place, winning $439,475.[4] In that event, James came in as the chip-leader, but lost the lead early—and almost 40% of his chips—on a bluff against Joe Bartholdi, who was second in chips. The bluff put Bartholdi in prohibitive chip position, and he eventually went on to win the event. A few more hits to Alstyne's stack followed, after which a visibly shaken Alstyne was knocked out in 5th place. In the post-game interview with Courtney Friel, Alstyne said, "I just feel horrible. This is the worst final table performance in the history of poker. This was just absolutely, unbelievably bad poker."[This quote needs a citation]
As of 2023, his total live tournament winnings exceed $4,300,000.[5]
World Series of Poker Bracelets
Year | Tournament | Prize (US$) |
---|---|---|
2009 | $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. | $247,033 |
References
- ^ "James Van Alstyne". WSOP.com. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
- ^ "30th World Series of Poker - WSOP 1999, No Limit Hold'em World Championship". The Hendon Mob. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
- ^ "2005 Ultimate Poker Classic, Championship Event - No Limit Hold'em". The Hendon Mob. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
- ^ "Fourth Annual Five-Star World Poker Classic, WPT Championship - No Limit Hold'em". The Hendon Mob. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
- ^ "James Van Alstyne's profile on The Hendon Mob". The Hendon Mob Poker Database. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
External links
- Interview
- Card Player profile
- Hendon Mob profile
- WSOP profile
- v
- t
- e
- Note
- number in brackets represents the number of bracelets earned in that year
- Dave Alizadeth
- Jimmy Athanas
- Chris Björin
- Mike Carson
- Johnny Chan
- David Chiu
- Diego Cordovez
- Nani Dollison
- Ivo Donev
- Richard Dunberg
- Tim Ellis
- Chris Ferguson (2)
- Jennifer Harman
- Jay Heimowitz
- Randy Holland
- Phil Ivey
- Nat Koe
- Howard Lederer
- Tony Ma
- Huck Seed
- Michael Sohayegh
- Jerri Thomas
- Chris Tsiprailidis
- Joe Wynn
- Burt Boutin
- Allen Cunningham
- Paul Darden
- Nani Dollison (2)
- Chris Ferguson
- Jay Heimowitz
- Phil Hellmuth
- Berry Johnston
- Travis Jonas
- Galen Kester
- Rich Korbin
- Howard Lederer
- Jim Lester
- Carlos Mortensen
- Scotty Nguyen (2)
- David Pham
- Adam Roberts
- Eddy Scharf
- Barry Shulman
- Erik Seidel
- Hemish Shah
- Bob Slezak
- Cliff Yamagawa
- Steve Zolotow
- Billy Baxter
- Fred Berger
- Catherine Brown
- John Cernuto
- Johnny Chan
- Joel Chaseman
- Paul Clark
- Allen Cunningham
- Jack Duncan
- Eddie Fishman
- Layne Flack (2)
- Perry Friedman
- Thor Hansen
- Randal Heeb
- Jennifer Harman
- Dan Heimiller
- John Hennigan
- John Hom
- Phil Ivey (3)
- John Juanda
- Meng La
- Mike Majerus
- Mike Matusow
- John McIntosh
- Qushqar Morad
- Jay Sipelstein
- Jan Vang Sørensen
- Bill Swan
- Dan Torla
- Robert Varkonyi
- David Warga
- Robert Williamson III
- Mickey Appleman
- John Arrage
- Doyle Brunson
- Johnny Chan (2)
- Chris Ferguson (2)
- Layne Flack (2)
- Prahlad Friedman
- Phil Hellmuth (2)
- Mohammed Ibrahim
- Tom Jacobs
- John Juanda (2)
- Charles Keith Lehr
- Toto Leonidas
- O'Neil Longson
- David Lukaszewski
- Jim Meehan
- Chris Moneymaker
- Carlos Mortensen
- Daniel Negreanu
- Men Nguyen (2)
- Minh Nguyen
- Phi Nguyen
- Frankie O'Dell
- Ron Rose
- Barb Rugolo
- Michael Saltzburg
- Eddy Scharf
- Huck Seed
- Erik Seidel
- Amir Vahedi
- Joe Awada
- Eli Balas
- Curtis Bibb
- Farzad Bonyadi
- T. J. Cloutier
- Hung Doan
- Gerry Drehobl
- Annie Duke
- Antonio Esfandiari
- Scott Fischman (2)
- Ted Forrest (2)
- Chau Giang
- Gary Gibbs
- Barry Greenstein
- Gavin Griffin
- Hasan Habib
- John Hennigan
- Brett Jungblut
- Ted Lawson
- Kathy Liebert
- Aaron Katz
- Thomas Keller
- Norm Ketchum
- Carl Nessel
- Daniel Negreanu
- Minh Nguyen
- Phi Nguyen
- Greg Raymer
- Mike Sica
- Cyndy Violette
- James Vogl
- Rafi Amit
- Josh Arieh
- Randy Boman
- Farzad Bonyadi
- Andre Boyer
- Doyle Brunson
- Todd Brunson
- Johnny Chan
- Jiang Chen
- David Chiu
- T. J. Cloutier
- Allen Cunningham
- Quinn Do
- Denis Ethier
- Eric Froehlich
- Issac Galazan
- Lawrence Gosney
- Michael Gracz
- Barry Greenstein
- David Grey
- Joe Hachem
- Steve Hohn
- Phil Ivey
- Cliff Josephy
- Ron Kirk
- O'Neil Longson
- Paul McKinney
- Edward Moncada
- Anthony Nguyen
- Reza Payvar
- John Pires
- Pat Poels
- Anthony Reategui
- Dan Schmiech
- Erik Seidel
- Mark Seif (2)
- Jan Vang Sørensen
- Willie Tann
- Jennifer Tilly
- Thom Werthmann
- Brian Wilson
- Todd Witteles
- Kianoush Abolfathi
- Daniel Alaei
- Praz Bansi
- Dutch Boyd
- Jeff Cabanillas
- Brandon Cantu
- Bob Chalmers
- Bill Chen (2)
- Scott Clements
- Kevin Cover
- Allen Cunningham
- Sam Farha
- Eric Froehlich
- Jon Friedberg
- Rafe Furst
- John Gale
- Jamie Gold
- James Gorham
- Chris Gros
- Phil Hellmuth
- Anders Henriksson
- Ian Johns
- Eric Kesselman
- Paul Kobel
- Jason Lester
- Benjamin Lin
- Jeff Madsen (2)
- Mary Jones Meyer
- Clare Miller
- Jim Mitchell
- Kevin Nathan
- Victoriano Perches
- Ralph Perry
- Max Pescatori
- David Pham
- Pat Poels
- Mats Rahmn
- Chip Reese
- James Richburg
- Mark Vos
- Lee Watkinson
- David Williams
- Jack Zwerner
2007 E
- Saif Ahmad
- Dario Alioto
- Rafi Amit
- Dao Bac
- Don Baruch
- Ernest Bennett
- Thomas Bihl
- Chandrasekhar Billavara
- Steve Billirakis
- Alexander Borteh
- Burt Boutin
- Sally Boyer
- Robert Cheung
- Michael Chu
- Scott Clements
- Hoyt Corkins
- Allen Cunningham
- Freddy Deeb
- Lukasz Dumanski
- Will Durkee
- Bill Edler
- Eli Elezra
- Saro Getzoyan
- Michael Graves
- Fred Goldberg
- John Guth
- Phil Hellmuth
- Greg Hopkins
- Ryan Hughes
- Michael Keiner
- Alexander Kravchenko
- Jeff Lisandro
- James Mackey
- Robert Mizrachi
- Frederick Narciso
- Annette Obrestad
- Frankie O'Dell
- Ciarán O'Leary
- Shankar Pillai
- Ben Ponzio
- Chris Reslock
- James Richburg
- Blair Rodman
- Francois Safieddine
- Tom Schneider (2)
- Dan Schreiber
- Ralph Schwartz
- Erik Seidel
- Alan Smurfit
- Mike Spegal
- David Stucke
- Gary Styczynski
- Katja Thater
- Jason Warner
- Ram Vaswani
- Jerry Yang
- Ryan Young
2008 E
- Michael Banducci
- Duncan Bell
- David Benyamine
- Eric Brooks
- Andrew Brown
- Joe Commisso
- David Daneshgar
- Peter Eastgate
- Sherkhan Farnood
- Layne Flack
- Phil Galfond
- Frank Gary
- Alexandre Gomes
- Matt Graham
- Barry Greenstein
- Max Greenwood
- Svetlana Gromenkova
- Blair Hinkle
- Grant Hinkle
- Rob Hollink
- Jesper Hougaard (2)
- Ryan Hughes
- Theo Jørgensen
- John Juanda
- Matt Keikoan
- Davidi Kitai
- Jonathan Kotula
- Martin Klaser
- Dan Lacourse
- Erick Lindgren
- Vitaly Lunkin
- Thang Luu
- Mike Matusow
- Nenad Medić
- Dario Minieri
- Daniel Negreanu
- Scotty Nguyen
- Max Pescatori
- John Phan (2)
- Rep Porter
- Anthony Rivera
- Michael Rocco
- Freddy Rouhani
- Sebastian Ruthenberg
- James Schaff
- Scott Seiver
- Vanessa Selbst
- Jimmy Shultz
- David Singer
- Marty Smyth
- J. C. Tran
- Kenny Tran
- Phil Tom
- Sebastian Ruthenberg
- Luis Velador
- Jens Vortman
- David Woo
- Jason Young
2009 E
- Bahador Ahmadi
- Daniel Alaei
- Ken Aldridge
- Tomas Alenius
- James Van Alstyne
- Jerrod Ankenman
- Richard Austin
- David Bach
- Eric Baldwin
- Rami Boukai
- Joe Cada
- Erik Cajelais
- Brandon Cantu
- Jeff Carris
- Andrew Cohen
- Michael Davis
- Mike Eise
- Freddie Ellis
- Zac Fellows
- Ray Foley
- Matt Graham
- Angel Guillén
- Lisa Hamilton
- David Halpern
- Anthony Harb
- Matt Hawrilenko
- Phil Ivey (2)
- Carsten Joh
- Travis Johnson
- John Kabbaj
- J. P. Kelly (2)
- Brian Lemke
- Jeff Lisandro (3)
- Vitaly Lunkin
- Thang Luu
- Jason Mercier
- Abe Mosseri
- Greg Mueller (2)
- Marc Naalden
- Brock Parker (2)
- Jorg Peisert
- Derek Raymond
- Barry Shulman
- Nick Schulman
- Jordan Smith
- Keven Stammen
- Steve Sung
- J. C. Tran
- Péter Traply
- Tony Veckey
- Peter Vilandos
- Jani Vilmunen
- Ville Wahlbeck
- Roland De Wolfe
- Leo Wolpert
- 1970s
- 1980s
- 1990s
- 2000s
- 2010s
- 2020s