Mark Vos

Mark Vos is one of the top youngsters in the game but despite his young age the man has gained plenty of experience because of the internet.

Originally from Cape Town, South Africa, Vos moved to Australia to study at Sydney’s Macquarie University. His course was bringing him down and, bored, he looked for a way out. He watched his friends, including one who was doing well for himself, playing poker and got interested. He logged on to the internet and immediately began to play.

He started off with a few hundred dollars but pretty soon lost nearly all of it. With no encouragement to put more money into the game he used the last of his online cash and entered the small games, the one cent/two cent fixed limit games, and gradually worked his way up. Vos states that although he has read a couple of poker books, most of the work is his own and claims to be something of a natural to the game.

Within a few months he was winning money and decided to defer his studies for a year to play for a living. He took his poker as seriously as he would take a real job and began playing 35 hours a week. Under the moniker “pokerbok” he soon became a name to be feared and was recognised as one of the top amateurs who played on Full Tilt Poker’s site. Vos still plays on that site but since May 2006 he is a fully fledged pro with his name in red.

His live tournament debut came in 2005 when he won the Pot Limit Omaha event at the Crown Victorian Poker Championship. The following year, at the Crown Australian Poker Championships, he cashed out twice playing No Limit Hold ‘em.

His greatest feat to date came in June of 2006. Competing in his first World Series of Poker championships, Vos stormed through the No Limit Hold ‘em field and won the event, beating Nam Le in a gruelling two hour heads up battle. Vos came away with over $800,000 and a prestigious gold bracelet – his first but unlikely his last. The South African has stated a preference for No Limit Hold ‘em and this is reflected in his achievements where nearly all of his cash placings are in this event – he has also had the odd few playing Pot Limit Omaha.

In 2006 alone, Vos has won over $1,000,000. He plans to play poker professionally for another five years in order to earn enough money to be able to relax for the rest of his life and enjoy all that the world has to offer him. He currently has no plans to return to his course at Macquarie University.