Nate Silver was thrust into the public eye when his U.S. Presidential election model correctly predicted the outcomes in all but one of the 50 states in 2008. The founder and editor-in-chief of data-driven politics and sports website FiveThirtyEight was named one of Time’s ’World’s 100 Most Influential People’ in 2009 and released a New York Times bestselling non-fiction book in 2012.
Before Silver built a media empire, however, there was a time when he was a professional poker player. His time grinding the game for a living came to an end a couple of years prior to his rise to prominence in the political sphere.
In recent years, the Michigan native has managed to take some time to revisit the poker world. He has played in a number of live poker tournaments, securing nine cashes between the summers of 2018 and 2021. Silver’s largest score had been a fifth-place finish in a $600 buy-in no-limit hold ’em event at the Venetian DeepStack Championship Poker Series for $22,737.
But the 43-year-old blew that previous top tournament result out of the water when he finished as the runner-up in the 2021 World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in limit hold’em championship, which was won by John Monnette for his fourth career WSOP bracelet. Silver earned $151,842 for his deep run which saw him outlast several big names at a stacked final table that included the likes of Ray Dehkharghani (10th – $18,506), John Racener (6th – $44,263), Jason Somerville (5th – $58,697), and Terrence Chan (4th – $79,210).
Card Player was able to catch up with Silver briefly on a break while he was at that final table to interview him about how he got into the game, playing $200-$400 limit hold’em online, his deep run at the series, and more.
Card Player: How did you first discover poker? Silver on day 1 of $10,000 limit hold’em championship Nate Silver: I used to teach at a debate camp. I had been a high school debater. At the debate camp, all the counselors had a late night poker game. You drink beer, we actually played […]
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