Brian Rast already comes to the Poker Hall of Fame fight with a heaving trophy cabinet. Five World Series of Poker bracelets (including the 2011 $50k PPC), one World Poker Tour final table, and $23 million in live cashes. And this is in spite of being a cash game player almost exclusively for most of his early career.
Rast started playing poker in high school, taking it seriously when he joined the Stanford Poker Club in 2003. By 2005, he had dropped out of school, quit his job, and was making his daily bread on the felt at the Barona Casino.
He fell in with Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Laak sharpening up his game the whole time. In 2009, he helped found a poker site with Dan Bilzerian, Victory Poker. Unfortunately, it was not a rousing success and Black Friday eventually put Victory Poker out of its misery for good.
In the last decade he has continued to dominate online while adding more live tournaments to his schedule, becoming a regular on the high roller circuit and rising to 28th on the Hendon Mob All Time Cashes list.
