Poker Player - Chip Jett
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With a name like Chip Jett is it hard to find anyone else with such a perfect name for a career in professional poker, perhaps with the exception of Chris Moneymaker.
Chip is probably one of the most recognisable players in poker today. His slicked back hair, trademark sunglasses and many appearances at high profile tournaments make him pretty hard to miss. He has gained a reputation as a friendly and intelligent man and is thought of as being one of the most consistent players around.
Born on September 22, 1974 in Scottsdale, Arizona, Chip was working as a lifeguard in a public pool when a co-worker suggested a trip to the newly opened Fort McDowell Casino, built on an Indian reservation. Like many other now professional poker players, Chip soon realised that his poker games were much more lucrative than his original career, so at 18 he started working at the Fort McDowell casino as a poker dealer and eventually moved on to proposition player (a proposition player is someone who is hired by the casino and is paid an hourly rate to help start poker games or help keep them going). At the time he was also teaching at the school he graduated from while he played night tournaments.
Before long he began sharpening his tournament game and was soon one of the most successful players in local area tournaments. In 2001 he won the LA Poker Classic's Best All-Around Player Award, which he considers to be one of his biggest achievements - the other being on the cover of Poker Digest - even though he was still relatively unknown to the rest of the poker world. Since 2001 Chip has been reeling in titles and awards but it was 2003 that some consider to be his best year. He made 15 final tables, including two World Series of Poker final tables, and landed one of his biggest wins when he took 2nd in the Party Poker Million, cashing for over $175,000 but he soon topped that with his win at the California State Poker Championship main event worth over $214,000. It was also in 2003 that he married his wife Karina, who is also a successful poker player. This, Chip says, keeps him motivated to keep his title as the most decorated poker player in the family.
Today, Chip lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with his wife Karina and their daughter Athena. He is probably one of the most successful poker players on the tournament circuit and has had tremendous success on the tournament trail, as of 2005 his live tournament winnings exceeded $1.5 million. He is considered by his peers to be amongst the top ten poker players, if not top three.
Even though he is a very successful player, Chip is always trying to improve himself by watching others. There is no doubt he has a well-rounded game and has different styles of play depending on what kind of tournament he is playing. He has spent a lot of time developing his game into what it is today and still tries to learn something from everyone he plays against. He constantly tries to identify what other successful players are doing and 'steals' the best parts of their game from the very best players. Chip himself admits that his greatest strength is also his greatest weakness - his fearlessness.
One day Chip hopes to make enough money to be able to relax on a beach for most of the year and only play in a dozen or so tournaments. Until then you can expect to find Chip at a final table at one of the big tournaments, usually accompanied by a Captain Morgan and Coke, and his wife, Karina.
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