Watching the latest episode of ESPN\’s Inside Deal … Laura Lane had a question for Howard Lederer, about who would win between him and his sister vs. the Brunson clan. Though Howard\’s non-committal answer shows he is definitely learnin\’ himself some politics, it got me thinking … really, who are the biggest poker families?
Though naturally I see yet another Dream Team tourney possibility, there could be other ways to quantify the \”first family\” of poker. Off the top of my head — based on people who play at least semi-regularly and have had some semblance of decent results in biggish events — you have, in no particular order:
The Brunsons
Doyle
Todd
Pam
The Lederers
Howard
Annie (Duke)
The Greensteins
Barry
Joe (Sebok)
The Mizrachis
Eric
Robert
Michael
The Williams
David
Shirley
The Schneiders
Tom
Julie
The Nguyens (Master)
Men
Van
The Heimowitzs
Jay
Lonnie
The (Belcore) Zogmans
Dan
Mary Jo
The last two were the first husband-and-wife to both book wins on the Heartland Poker Tour. More than $300k worth of prize money between them — they count. (And I had no idea Lonnie H had so many cashes!) Who else am I forgetting? I\’m not sure if Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly (+Antonio?) could count as a common-law family. But overall, I\’m wondering … there\’ve got to be what, hundreds, maybe a couple thousand true poker families out there in the world (active players, buying into at least the small versions of big tourneys). And one of them has to be the best …
ALSO:
The Les
Nam
Tommy
Allan
The Hachems
Joe
Tony
The Hinkles
Grant
Blair
The Shulmans
Barry
Jeff
Allyn (Jaffrey)
The Feduniaks
Bob
Maureen
The Sterns
Max
Maria
The Enrights
Barbara
Max (Shapiro)
The (Harman) Traniellos
Jennifer
Marco
The Browns
Chad
Vanessa (Rousso)
The Breneses
Alex
Humberto
Eric
The Jetts
Chip
Karina
Karina\’s Mom
