Brian Rast
| Brian Rast | |
|---|---|
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Brian Rast in 2015
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| Nickname(s) | tsarrast |
| Residence | Las Vegas, Nevada Poway, California |
| Born |
November 8, 1981 Denver, Colorado |
| World Series of Poker | |
| Bracelet(s) | 3 |
| Final table(s) | 9 |
| Money finish(es) | 29 |
| Highest ITM Main Event finish |
537th, 2010 |
| World Poker Tour | |
| Title(s) | None |
| Final table(s) | None |
| Money finish(es) | 5 |
Brian Rast (born 1981) is a professional poker player living in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Rast was born November 8, 1981 in Denver, Colorado where he lived until 1990 when he moved to Poway, California. There he attended Poway High School where he became the Class of 2000 valedictorian, earning his way to Stanford University. Brian always loved strategic games, and although being familiar with poker dating back to high school, Brian started playing weekly at the Stanford Poker Club (founded by his friend Mike Asmar) in the spring of 2003. That summer Brian went home to Poway determined to learn poker and make some money. He started buying and reading as many poker books as he could. He took a temp job and used that money to fund his poker habit, playing online and live at Barona Casino. Within five weeks, he had quit the temp job to focus full time on poker for the remainder of the summer. After making $20,000 his first summer playing, Brian was hooked and never looked back. By 2004, he had dropped out of school to pursue a career in poker.
For the next few months, Brian continued to live up in the Palo Alto area, playing poker both live and online. That summer of 2005 he left the Bay area and took his first shot at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Soon he was back living in Poway, playing online, and making regular trips to Commerce Casino & Las Vegas to play live. He eventually chose Las Vegas over Los Angeles. After making numerous trips where he stayed at Bellagio, sometimes for over 25 days in a month, he finally decided to rent a place in Henderson and move out to Vegas permanently in 2007. Then in mid-2008, he bought his first place at Panorama Towers – a highrise where many other poker players live due to its location and quality. He quickly met and became good friends with some other poker players in Las Vegas, notably Keith Gipson, Andrew Robl, Antonio Esfandiari, & Phil Laak. By late 2009, Andrew, Antonio, Brian, & Keith along with Dan Fleyshman and Dan Bilzerian decided to form Victory Poker – a poker website that ultimately shutdown after Black Friday. In January 2010, Laak convinced Brian to travel to Brazil with him. It'd be a trip that would change his life in a big way. While in Rio de Janeiro near the end of the trip, Brian met Juliana Karla Carlos da Silva while out drinking. Despite two failed US VISA attempts, Brian and Juliana talked daily on Skype and Brian made numerous trips to Brazil to continue the relationship. The couple were engaged later that year and found themselves trying for a third visa, a fiance visa. The 2011 WSOP happened during the leadup to the fiance visa, and marks a special time professionally for Brian because it is when he won 2 WSOP bracelets, including the prestigious $50,000 Poker Player's Championship. Missing the Main Event that year, Brian flew to Brazil to accompany Juliana for the Fiance Visa interview. It was accepted. Within a few months she and her son Krishna came to the USA where Brian and her married in November.
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