Discipline, knowledge and experience can be a deadly combination when it comes to poker. Fortunately for Jose Rosenkrantz, he possesses all three.

Born in Costa Rica, Rosenkrantz has been a fan of poker since he was 15. In the beginning, it was just a game he learned to play for recreation; his real passion and talents took him to the billiard circuit instead.

Proving that he had great discipline and concentration, Rosenkrantz worked his way to becoming the Costa Rican national billiards champion. Those skills transferred well as he started to play more and more poker.

In 1985, he left billiards completely and joined Humberto Brenes' home poker game. Unfortunately poker didn't have much of a following yet in Costa Rica, so there weren't many other options for players other than a home game. Brenes and Rosenkrantz worked to solve that problem by opening up their own poker club.

Poker was also a hobby he could integrate into his life while he was busy traveling for work. He owned his own successful ladies clothing manufacturing company that took him all over the world on business.

During a trip to Las Vegas with Brenes the two discovered Texas Hold'em as well. They took the game back to their poker club - which has now grown to more than 80 members - and both started competing in tournaments.

It didn't take long for Rosenkrantz to make waves in the international Texas Hold'em scene. In 1987, he cashed in two World Series of Poker events, the $1,500 Limit Hold'em event and the No-Limit Hold'em Main Event.

He continued to cash regularly for the next few years, but he was flying under the radar as far as poker notoriety. In 2002, though, that all changed as the World Poker Tour made its debut. Rosenkrantz won the WPT $500 No-Limit Hold'em event of the Costa Rica Classic, giving him his first six-figure tournament pay-out and pushing him into the poker spotlight.

He followed that win up with two more cashes in WSOP events the following year after making it deep into the $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em and $3,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em events. Then he almost won himself another WPT event after coming in second during the 2003 Battle of Champions.

He's continued that streak ever since, adding on more tournament cashes each year. Though he has yet to top his WPT Costa Rica Classic win, Rosenkrantz is still going strong in the poker tournament circuit and you can expect to see him finishing deep in many tournaments to come and maybe even adding a WSOP bracelet to his list of accomplishments someday.