When poker pros are not playing at the tables online or off, many of them can be found penning columns and feature articles for the world’s poker media. They include well known figures like Annie Duke contributing to Poker News Daily and Scotty Nguyen serving as a guest writer for PokerJolt.
More than a few lesser known experts have discovered that it’s easier to make money from their prowess with a pen than their playing abilities with cards. Poker News columnist Lee Jones, for example, cashed once in a WSOP event in 1996 for $300 and he’s been doing well writing about the sport ever since. Here are some player-columnists you can hardly miss if you frequent various poker information sources online.
Andrew Feldman is a member of Team Full Tilt. He got his first cash on the U.K. Grosvenor Poker Tour in 2007 and has since banked at the U.K. Open IV Finals, the 2009 WSOP, the EPT in Prague, the 2008 Aussie Millions Main Event and the WSOP Europe Heads Up High Roller event. He is a featured columnist for ESPN Poker.
Bernard Lee is well known in the poker media world. He’s been the co-host of ESPN Inside Deal as well as a poker columnist for ESPN.com and Card Player Magazine. His poker columns for the Boston Herald were compiled into a book called “The Final Table.” At WSOP/Circuit events, he’s accumulated $881,654 since 2005.
Bob Ciaffone has long written columns for CardPlayer.com. He earned his first WSOP cash in 1985 and he’s added six more since then, worth just shy of $200,000.
Cyndy Violette ranks as one of the top female poker players in the world, with 34 WSOP cashes worth $905,400 and a 2004 bracelet to prove it. When she isn’t proving women can compete right alongside the “big boys,” she often puts her pen to work for WomanPokerPlayer.com.
Jean Paul Kelly writes about playing live on the professional poker circuit. The former British soccer and cricket player is now a two-time WSOP bracelet winner with over $1 million in cashes. Although the “Aylesbury Ace” is said to be most interested in maths, business and economics, he can frequently be found online at Pokerstars.com when he isn’t preparing his exclusive column for PokerJolt.
Jude Ainsworth is an Irish poker superstar, with well over a million dollars won in his career. After turning pro in 2008, he cashed four times in WSOP events and has become widely acclaimed as rising young star online. The Galway resident writes an exclusive column for PokerJolt and is sponsored by Pokerstars.
Jennifer Shahade has cashed four times at WSOP/Circuit tables since 2007. The Philadelphia-based pro and writer is the author of “Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport.” Her columns can be seen on WomanPokerPlayer.com.
John Vorhaus may have only one WSOP cash to his credit, but his keen understanding of the game got him brought on as co-author of Annie Duke’s 2009 book “Decide to Play Great Poker.” His columns about the sport can be seen regularly on CardPlayer.com.
Julian “Yo-Yo” Thew got his nickname from the constantly rising and falling chip stacks in front of him at the table. Based in Nottingham, England, the pro has claimed more than $2.5 million in live tournaments cashes and now plays up to 40 hours-a-week online at Pokerstars. That doesn’t leave much time for writing, but his regular column can be seen on PokerJolt.
Katie Dozier has cashed three times in WSOP/Circuit events since 2011. As a professional online poker player she’s known as “hotjenny314” and serves as head coach for Team Moshman. The Florida native lives in Las Vegas now, writing regularly for WomanPokerPlayer.com while contributing articles to Poker Pro Magazine, Canadian Poker Player and her own blog at katiedozier.com.
Matt Matros wrote a book called “The Making of a Poker Player” and he is rumored to be working on a novel. That’s apparently how the three-time WSOP bracelet winner spends his free time between stints at the tables and getting columns ready for CardPlayer.com, of course.
Mike Sexton got his WSOP bracelet in 1989 as one of 53 tournament cashes he can claim to date, together worth well over $1.1 million. For a decade he was a regular contributor to Card Player Magazine. He’s also been a contributing columnist for Gambling Times, Gaming Today, Casino Online and Casino Times magazines. Nowadays, writing columns for Poker News Daily gives him an opportunity to share his knowledge of the game and rant a bit about changes that are needed in the sport.
Linda Johnson, also known as the “First Lady of Poker,” has been playing poker professionally since 1980. She became the third woman in history to win a WSOP gold bracelet in an open event and can count 12 WSOP cashes worth $157,049, earning her a place in the Women in Poker Hall of Fame. When she isn’t off on the high seas with Card Player Cruises, the former publisher of Card Player Magazine still writes columns that appear on Poker News Daily and WomanPokerPlayer.com.
Victoria Coren is based in London, where she handles the poker column for The Guardian newspaper. As a fulltime journalist, she is one of the few writers who has turned pro player as opposed to playing and then writing about it. In 2006, she won the London leg of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Season 3. That was worth a nifty $941,513 and instantly made her one of the highest earning female players of all time.