Steve Zolotow

Steve Zolotow has never been a man to settle for the easy life or to go for the safe option when something more exciting is available to him.

His original intentions were to get into acting but with parts hard to come by he began to struggle financially and he decided he needed a job with a more regular payday. However, despite holding a BS in Statistics and an MBA in Finance, the idea of a 9-5 job repulsed Zolotow and he looked to use his number crunching background in the gambling industry.

For fifteen years, starting in 1965, he worked as a professional backgammon player before moving to sports betting for the next fifteen. Poker is a game that he had played all his life yet he had not considered it as a career option. In 1985 he began to experiment with poker by entering a few tournaments and, with several cash finishes in the World Series of Poker, he soon turned his hand to playing the game full time.

“The Bald Eagle” has a distinctive look at the table; sporting a bare head and a handlebar moustache, he is easily recognisable. He started out primarily as a cash game player and this can be seen in his disciplined style of play. This style means that he often reaches cash spots but rarely turns good tournament starts into wins – by the end of 2006, Zolotow had cashed out 56 times in major tournaments but he finished first in only four of these events.

Zolotow does particularly well in the WSOP. 30 of his cash finishes have come in this tournament and half of this total wins have been at the WSOP earning him two gold bracelets. The first of these came in 1995 with a win in Chinese Poker, with a final table that included Doyle Brunson and Howard Lederer. His second bracelet came six years later when he won the Pot Limit Hold ‘em event in the 32nd annual series.

His first success outside the WSOP came in January 2002 when he won the Limit Hold ‘em event at the 3rd Annual Jack Binion World Poker Open.

Poker has enabled Zolotow to travel the world and he has reached final tables all over the globe. His fourth first place finish occurred in the 2004 Crown Australasian Poker Championship where he beat off the competition to win the Pot Limit Omaha event.

Even though he enjoys travelling to play poker, Zolotow’s roots remain securely in American soil. He currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, and owns a string of bars around the country – something he classes as more of a hobby than a job. On top of his other commitments, Zolotow writes for Card Player Magazine and plays online for Full Tilt Poker. At the end of 2006, his career tournament earnings exceeded $1,500,000.