Top 5 underage poker crushers
In honour of 20-year-old Dzmitry Urbanovich's breakout year, we look at five players who crushed before they were old enough to play in Vegas.
Mike McDonald
'Timex' is such a well known poker moniker that you would be forgiven for thinking Mike McDonald is already in his mid-thirties, it seems he has been around forever.
In fact he is just 26-years-old at the time of writing, it's just he made a very strong start early in his career.
At just 18 years of age he won the EPT German Open in Dortmund in February 2008 for €933,600, making him the youngest person ever to win an EPT Main Event. He is also the youngest person ever to win an Epic Poker League Main Event, winning the $20,000 buy-in 8-max event for $780,000.
At the time of writing he is third on the all-time Canadian Money List with $12,981,821 in live winnings.
Ole Schemion
Few players appeared to strike more fear in their opponents than Ole Schemion between about 2011 and 2014. The young German won his first ever tournament, a side event at EPT Berlin, in 2011 aged just 19 and has shown little sign of stopping since.
He made his name when he won the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event for €1,172,850 in 2012 and just two months later winning the Amsterdam Masters Classic Main Event for €286,200.
What he is best known for, however, is how prolific he has been in side events on the poker circuit, in particular High Rollers, which have helped him amass $8,252,773 in live earnings at just 23. When he finally was old enough to play in Las Vegas he immediately showed the poker world what he was made of, winning the Aria Super High Roller Bowl for $1,062,785 in 2014.
Annette Obrestad
You cannot have a list of the greatest young players in poker without including Annette Obrestad, who made her name, now infamously, because she played underage for years, as her screen name 'Annette_15' in hindsight made it very clear.
She really was the Poster Girl for internet poker in her online days, as she was one of the most prolific and successful MTT players ever with $2,736,863 in cashes. This story is particularly compelling because of the fact that she famously never made a deposit in her life, starting her career with freerolls.
It was in the live arena where she truly cemented her legendary status. In 2007, just one day before her 19th birthday, she won the first ever WSOPE Main Event in London for £1 million. Because it was the first time bracelet events were played outside of Vegas, this also made her the youngest ever WSOP bracelet winner.
Phil Ivey
Perhaps the other classic story of a poker player learning the game when people their age should have been riding bikes and reading comics, was the iconic story of how Phil Ivey learned the game.
When he was 18 in the 1990s he acquired a fake ID so that he could play poker in the casinos in Atlantic City. He played so frequently he acquired the nickname 'No Home Jerome'. When he finally turned 21 (and thus, old enough to play poker in the US) he admitted his real age and apologised to everyone he played with and who worked for the casinos.
Since then he went on to win 10 bracelets, $23,856,034 in live tournament winnings and millions more in cash games. He is widely regarded as the best overall player in the world.
Had a young Ivey had the benefit of online poker and a thriving poker circuit outside of the US, he might have eclipsed everyone on this list's under-21-year-old achievements.
Dzmitry Urbanovich
It may be a recency bias, but it is hard not to think that the 20-year-old Polish sensation might be the best player under-21 of all time.
He has $4,828,346 in cashes already, is the leading player of all time from Poland, won EPT Player of the Year last year and last week won his first EPT Main Event.
What is remarkable about him is that you are just as likely to see him playing in a €100,000 Super High Roller as you are to see him in a €200 side event. What stands out more than anything with Urbanovich is how much he loves the game and how prolific he is.
The fact that he has made a bet worth $2 million that he will win three WSOP bracelets in his debut series suggests that we have a real star in the making with this young pro.
Did we miss an iconic baby-faced poker star from the list? Let us know in the comments.
