Tex Barch was born in McKinley, Texas in 1971 and his full name is John Derick Barch. Most of the times players’ nicknames come from their job, their birthplace or even their pet. John Barch is mostly known by the name “Tex” Barch. Wonder where that comes from? Well, it’s as simple as that – he was born in Texas and loving his birthplace probably made him choose this nickname.
Tex Barch has a degree in business from the University of Montana. He is married with two children and his family lives in Richardson, Texas, which is actually very near to his birthplace. Barch owns Big Johnson's Beer Garden Bar in Texas, where he offers his customers 22 varieties of beer, delicious meals and a lot of interesting activities like karaoke, live music and Amateur Poker L?ague tournament in progress every Monday. And that is just one of the things that made him a successful businessman. John started playing poker in 1993 and his favorite game is Pot-Limit. His first success in a World Series event was on April 27, 2004. Barch finished 16th and that earned himself a prize of $4,000.
The following year was definitely successful for Tex. He outplayed and out-bluffed 5,619 of the very best poker players in the world in the 36th World Series of Poker event, winning one of the nine seats at the final table. And everyone in the poker world knows just how big of a deal that is. In what turned out to be the final hand, Barch went "all in", only to be called by both Hachem and Dannenmann. Then Tex finished 3rd, after facing other players like Raymer, Brunson, Ferguson and won a prize of 2.5 million dollars. After his big score in 2005, John Barch participated in some other tournaments as well, such as the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic event, where he finished 8th and won $23,835.
Those achievements only proved that Tex is a great gambler, but poker is not the only thing he’s good at. In life, he is also a loving husband and a father of two children. He lives with his family in McKinney, Texas, which is just about 20 miles away from his birthplace in Richardson.
Since that successful pot in the 2005 WSOP, Barch added over $50,000 to his winnings in five other tournaments. He has played in small tournaments across the country from New Jersey to Mississippi and back to Las Vegas. As of 2008, his total career live tournament winnings exceed $2,600,000. Let’s hope we’ll see even more from Mr. John Barch!