About Thomas Keller

Thomas Keller goes by the poker nickname "Thunder." He first saw the light of day in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and went on to earn a degree in economics from Stanford University. He moved to Arizona after graduation and quickly established himself as the king of poker in the Phoenix-area, rapidly ascending from $15-$30 games to $50-$100 games, and then some.

Thunder was playing in the highest limit game in Arizona by the time he was 22. Players who had been playing longer than he had been alive recognized his great talent. An Arizona local named "Shoe" said: "He's the best young poker player in the world. I must have played with him fifty times, and fifty times he won. I've never seen anything like him."

Thunder is said to have beat the game with such consistency that at one point he had all of the casino's $100 chips stashed in the trunk of his car because he didn't feel like cashing out. There came a day when the big cash game players wanted to play poker, so Thunder sold off racks of $100 chips to them, $10,000 at a time, right from the back of his automobile.

When he won a gold bracelet at the 2004 World Series of Poker, he was only 23 years old. On his way to championing the No-Limit Hold'em event, he beat the likes of Chris Moneymaker, Johnny Chan, Howard Lederer, and Devilfish Ulliot…perhaps he is the best young poker player in the world.

Trivia

• Holds a degree in economics from Stanford University
• One of the youngest players to ever win a WSOP gold bracelet