Joe Beevers has the distinction of being the only member of poker's celebrated Hendon Mob to actually hail from Hendon, England.

But his residence is far from being his most notable professional accomplishment. The former banker and blackjack-card-counter-turned-poker pro also has a solid cash game and tournament history, not to mention a partnership in an internationally recognized Web site.

Beevers was born in Marylebone, London, on Dec. 9, 1967. His father, a banker, began instilling math abilities befitting a poker player in his son when Beevers was just 7 years old.

The boy learned probability and permutation skills that would also come in handy during his career as part of a blackjack card-counting team with his dad. Their exploits saw them touring the world together but, eventually, banned from a collective 23 casinos.

Though he worked the gambling hall floors in his late teens, Beevers was still a good student and eventually returned to school to follow in his father's professional footsteps. He earned an honors degree in finance and accounting and eventually was hired at Hendon's Citibank branch.

The nine-to-five job didn't curb Beever's gamble; he still speculated on horses at the racetrack with his father before taking up poker in earnest in the early 1990s.

Just as he had been with learning card counting and studying in university, Beevers was disciplined in learning the game. He watched and analyzed players who always seemed to be cashing and tucked the strategy away for his own game.

For the most part, Beevers worked at his cash game - achieving, according to his profile on thehendonmob.com, near faultless play - and steered clear of the tournament scene.

During that time, he started hosting a home game at his house in Hendon. After brothers Ross and Barney Boatman found themselves without a cash game, the pair started making the trek from North London for the games. There, the men became fast friends with Beevers and regular Ram Vaswani.

Eventually the foursome started popping up on the tournament circuit around London, most often together as they carpooled to the events. They became such a fixture in their dark suits and shades that everywhere the men went, people were calling them the Hendon Mob.

No matter that Beevers was the only Hendon resident of the bunch - the name stuck and the crew's notoriety increased as its members established themselves as professional players. Beevers' game was mostly in European events during the mid- to late-90s, cashing and final-tabling regularly but failing to nail down a notable tournament win.

Nonetheless, he had arrived on the scene at the right time. Just as the European poker scene was starting to flourish, the Mobsters were making their presence known at tournaments in Paris, Helsinki, Vienna and Amsterdam. The crew saw a collective breakout in 1999 with the advent of Britain's first-ever televised tournament, Late Night Poker.

The men were celebrities, catching the public eye after being written up in countless magazines and newspapers. With so much attention focused on them, the men decided to start up a Web page in their name in April 2002, offering some fun poker tips, self-penned articles and tournament pictures.

If the Hendon Mob was well known before, the Web site increased its notoriety exponentially. The site was established just prior to poker's big boom following the 2003 World Series of Poker and has been growing ever since, turning into a now-comprehensive guide for poker player tournament rankings.

With the added attention, Beevers, along with his fellow Mobsters, scored a lucrative sponsorship deal with the Prima Network. The contract lasted three years and upon expiration was followed up by another deal with Full Tilt Poker.

Apart from playing online, Beevers has rested his elbows on many a final tournament table. His best results have been at European events, specifically on Late Night Poker where he is recognized for making the final table at three of the six televised tournaments.

But he also has a handful of tournament titles to his name. In 2003, he took down the Irish Poker Open's £1,000 No-Limit Hold'em event. He won the £300 Pot-Limit Hold'em tournament at the European Poker Classics the same year, and in 2004 he found success at the Four Queens Poker Classic main event.

Beevers was in unfamiliar territory in 2005, when he went out on the final table bubble at the World Poker Tour $25,000 championship, but earned $188,000 for his seventh-place effort.

More recently, he enjoyed a win at the Poker Nations Cup in Cardiff, Wales, and cashed in three 2006 World Series events.

These days, Beevers told PokerListings.com in 2005, he's playing fewer tournaments and enjoys cash games, where Pot-Limit Omaha is his bread and butter.

If you do catch him at an event, Beevers might jump out from the usual crowd. His nickname is The Elegance - coined by fellow Brit player Vicky Coren - and comes from natty attire and a predilection for Armani suits. A veritable bon vivant, Beevers also has a weakness for fast automobiles such as a Porsche 911 he affixed with a vanity plate that reads JOE 911.

In his spare time - which is more frequent nowadays, as Beevers favors a relaxed tournament schedule - he spends time with his wife, Claire, whom he married at the Bellagio shortly after the 2005 World Series of Poker, and their twin daughters, Millie and Lola.