Russ Hamilton is a professional poker player, who has been into the game for a very long time. He was born in 1948 in Detroit, Michigan. Russ Hamilton started playing poker when he was 7 years old, but his decision to play poker professionally came quite a few years later. When Russ Hamilton finished college with a degree in electrical engineering, a conversation with a professor made him take the decision that playing poker full time would be more profitable.
It was in 1984 when Russ Hamilton moved from to Las Vegas, Nevada at the age of 36. He believes in the statement that “luck is a very important factor in the game”. but also believes that to have success you should have a positive attitude. Russ Hamilton stated that a bad attitude always cost you money. In Las Vegas he first joined in a blackjack team with the players Stanford Wong, Anthony Curtis, Blair Rodman, Fred David and other blackjack pros. Russ Hamilton had success at first, but tournaments began to bar the blackjack pros, which was the reason for him to turn to poker games. 1994 is one of his most successful years. In this year Russ Hamilton took part in the World Series of Poker for the very first time. He participated in the 25th WSOP $1.500 Pot Limit Omaha and $2.500 Pot Limit Omaha where he finished respectively in 7th and 4th place, winning $35.225 totally. But his greatest success came on May 9th, 1994, when he joined the 25th WSOP, Las Vegas - $ 10,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship. He played at the final table against Hugh Vincent, where Russ Hamilton managed to defeatt him and finish 1st. The prize for that was a check for $1.000.000 and his weight in silver - over $26.000. Since his great success, Russ Hamilton has become one of the best world’s experts in the poker game industry. He has won other World Championships in different casino games such as 2002 Caribbean Poker Classic, Palm Beach $300 No Limit Hold’em, 2002 Caribbean Poker Classic, Palm Beach $2.000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event and 2002 Oasis Open, Mesquite $100 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo. Russ Hamilton also founded the Ultimate Blackjack Tour in 2005.
During the last two years Russ Hamilton has not been seen on tournaments as he prefers playing in cash games. His last appearance on a tournament was in 2006 in the Pokerstars.com Caribbean Adventure, Paradise Island $7.800 WTP – Main Event – No Limit Hold’em. He finished in 41st place and went home with a check for $13.500. To this date, his total tournament winnings exceed $1,500,000.
Russ Hamilton is the co-founder of the online poker site UltimateBet.com as he helps with the tournament structure. In January 2008, the site became implicated in a huge cheating scandal with so-called “super-users” that had access to the private cards of the players. The site paid out millions of dollars to players who even didn’t exist. In July 2008, Russ Hamilton was involved in the scandal when an investigation showed that some of the fake “super-user” accounts were linked to property registered in his name. Russ Hamilton now resides in Las Vegas, Nevada with his wife. They have been married for 30 years and don’t have any kids.