Eric Froehlich

Eric Froehlich was born in 1984 in New Jersey. In 2005, just two months after his 21st birthday, “E-Fro” won the Limit Hold ‘em event at the 36th annual World Series of Poker Tournament. This victory put Froehlich in the history books as the youngest ever winner of a WSOP bracelet, taking this title from the previous holder Gavin Griffin.

Eric Froehlich was born in 1984 in New Jersey. In 2005, just two months after his 21st birthday, “E-Fro” won the Limit Hold ‘em event at the 36th annual World Series of Poker Tournament. This victory put Froehlich in the history books as the youngest ever winner of a WSOP bracelet, taking this title from the previous holder Gavin Griffin.

Unfortunately for him, his record stood for just one year before it was broken by Jeff Madsen, a player who was seven weeks younger at the time of his achievement.

Growing up, Froehlich was a sports enthusiastic who followed and played baseball, basketball and football. He suffered an injury that rendered him unable to play to the best of his ability so, in order to satisfy his thirst for competition, he turned to cards. His interest in sports is still highly evident as he constantly wears football jerseys at the table.

He first turned to Magic: The Gathering before moving to more ‘grown up’ games and poker seemed to be the obvious choice.

After being forced to take a gap year at college– because the subjects needed for his major were not available – he decided to play poker professionally to fill the void. Froehlich never returned to education, as he wisely decided that he could make a rewarding career from poker. Despite winning $360,000 at his first tournament his life has not changed dramatically; instead of splashing out on frivolous items as many youngsters may be tempted to, Froehlich says the money went into a family account that was used to help fund his brother’s studies at college and to pay off mortgages.

The early stages of this man’s career have been very promising and all the signs point to a successful life in cards. In two years of play Froehlich has amassed over $800,000 of winnings, including four cash finishes at the WSOP, and he has collected his second bracelet – in the 2006 WSOP Limit Omaha event.

As well as his excellent form in his early tournaments, Froehlich, along with other poker hotshots like Madsen, regularly plays online at Full Tilt Poker. Because of his age, Froehlich credits the internet with a lot of his early play after learning the game with a few school buddies.

He now lives in Springfield, Virginia, and is yet to find a woman who he wants to settle down with. His kind and gentle nature has seen Froehlich dubbed as the sweetheart of WSOP by some sections of the media. Rumour has it he was quite happy when he heard actress Shannon Elizabeth had turned her hand to poker…