Sam Farha

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Sam Farha
Sam Farha at the National Heads-Up Poker Championship
Nickname(s)	Mister Cool, Sammy
Hometown	Houston, Texas
World Series of Poker
Bracelet(s)	2
Money finishes	5
Highest ITM main event finish	2nd, 2003
World Poker Tour
Titles	None
Final tables	None
Money finishes	3

Ihsan (Sam) Farha (born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1959) is a professional poker player. He currently lives in Houston, Texas.

1 Early years
2 World Series of Poker
- 2.1 World Series of Poker bracelets
3 Current activities
4 Trivia
5 External links
6 References

[edit] Early years

Farha moved to the USA after the Lebanese Civil War broke out when he was in his teens. After settling in Wichita, Kansas in 1977, he attended the University of Kansas. He graduated with a degree in business administration and moved to Houston, Texas to work with his brother. Farha first played a game of poker a year after moving to Houston, and won several thousand dollars. He quit his job in 1990 to play poker full time. There are many rumors, however, that the vast majority of his fortune came from an inheritance, and several real estate and business ventures he is currently involved in.

[edit] World Series of Poker

Farha's biggest tournament finish was in the 2003 World Series of Poker main event, where he finished 2nd to Chris Moneymaker for $1,300,000. In a rematch between Farha and Moneymaker a few months later, organized by PokerStars, Farha won. Farha also finished in the money in the 2005 WSOP main event.

[edit] World Series of Poker bracelets

Both of Farha's bracelets have come in Omaha events.

Year	Event	Prize Money
1996	$2500 Pot Limit Omaha	$145,000
2006	$5000 Limit Omaha 8/b	$398,560

[edit] Current activities

Farha is working on a book, tentatively titled Luck is Not Enough, a reality TV poker series, and a video game. He is a spokesman for Harrah's casino in Las Vegas.

He is currently appearing in the GSN series High Stakes Poker and is notorious for wasting time while acting as if he is going to call and then abruptly folding. Commentators AJ Benza and Gabe Kaplan have commented on his behavior several times.

As of 2007, his total winnings exceed $2,000,000 in live tournament poker^[1], although he tends to primarily play in high stakes Omaha cash games.

[edit] Trivia

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It has been alleged on the World Series of Poker that Farha does not smoke, but he has been seen smoking on several occasions. Due to rules prohibiting smoking in poker rooms, he can frequently be seen with a "lucky" cigarette in his mouth. He is superstitious and if he takes a bad beat he will sometimes change cigarettes. One time, after winning a series of pots, he said, "I'm so hot, my cigarette's going to light!"
Aside from poker, Farha is skilled at many other forms of gaming. He once won a pinball tournament in Kansas, and he won a sizable bet by winning a Pac-Man competition.
He is the mentor of George Abdallah, who finished 2nd in the $1,500 pot limit Omaha event at the 2006 WSOP. ^[2]
During the second day of play at the 2003 World Series of Poker main event, Farha and Barry Greenstein were in an all-in pot which Greenstein won, leaving Farha extremely short stacked.(Less than 10% of the average stack) He intended to leave at that point, unsure of being able to do anything with the few chips he was left with. Greenstein convinced him to stay, and Farha went on to finish in second place for $1.3 million in the event. ^[3]
Farha is also associated with the catch phrase "raisy daisy" which he will occasionally use when raising a hand, he is also well known for saying 'are you serious?' at every opportunity
On High Stakes Poker Farha won a $361,800 pot with Pocket Kings all-in up against Barry Greenstein's Pocket Aces pre-flop. The board came 6-K-8-7-3, completing Farha's set of Kings. It was the last hand of the night.