About Pascal Perrault

Pascal Perrault is a professional pharmacist who just happens to have had pro-style wins in poker tournaments. He has proven himself to be a quintessential tournament player: unreadable and aggressive.

While he loves the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, he is also a fan of the tournaments in Amsterdam, London, Vienna, and Helsinki. Pascal doesn't at all mind traveling to various tournaments; on the plane he uses his computer to contemplate poker strategies, and feels that his time in transit passes very quickly as a result.
He enjoys good relationships with many other players on the circuit, and reveals his manners by maintaining that it would not be "elegant" to say anything bad about those few with whom he has had contretemps. He has been on "Late Night Poker" every season so far, and hopes that French television will soon catch up to its British and American counterparts in terms of televising poker events.

He is emphatic about poker's new reputation. "Poker has become a true intellectual sport along the lines of bridge or chess. People have to understand that poker as we now play it is no longer the game they played in backrooms. A poker player who presents himself at a tournament is like a virtual gladiator who enters into the arena to fight: sometimes he wins, sometimes he dies a virtual death."

Pascal believes that one of his strengths as a player is his ability to sublimate his ego when he plays. "You can't focus on getting your chips back from a particular player once you've had a bad beat," he asserts.

Pascal's experience in American tournaments has led him to wonder why American dealers use two hands to deal; European dealers use a card shoe, which enables them to pull the cards out with one hand. Pascal thinks it's easier to cheat if you're dealing with two hands.

He affirms that the challenge, not the money, appeals to him most in professional poker. "I do not care about the fame or the money, but the challenge. You can spit on the money."

Trivia

• Holds a doctorate in Pharmacology from the University of Paris
• Father of five
• Nicknamed "P.P. the Bandit"