Lee Childs
If you’re going to start your live poker career with an event, how about starting it with the Final Table of the Main Event of the World Series of poker? When Lee Childs began his full time poker career just months before the 2007 World Series of Poker, his Hendon Mob Database showed no cashes, but that was actually a statistic that surprised the people that ran into him at the tables that year.
Prior to the decision of turning pro, Lee had spent some time working with National Geographic and “The JASON Project,” a program founded by Dr. Robert D. Ballard, the oceanographer and explorer who discovered the shipwreck of the RMS Titanic. JASON is a project (named after the Greek mythological explorer) which encourages youths to pursue real life scientific exploration and discovery, and connects more than 10 million middle school aged children to actual programs and scientific explorations. But in the months just prior to the summer poker events in Las Vegas, NV, Lee decided to leave his position there, and explore the dream of becoming a professional poker player where he would take his dream to heights that players only dream of.
There were 6,358 players that paid the $10,000 to buy into the WSOP Main Event in 2007, and Lee was one of the 9 that found their dream come true, sitting at the final table. With 7 players remaining, action folded to Lee who raised from the small blind to 720,000. Jerry Yang then squeezed his cards from the Big Blind, and once again, announced “All in.” He’d done it many times already at this final table, and Lee was faced with a very tough decision. He had 4.98 million behind him, but Yang had him covered. After thinking about the play for a good 2 minutes, Lee went with his read, and correctly announced “I call” and flipped over Kh-Jc, as Yang showed Js-8s. Lee was now poised to double to more than 10 million, until the board delivered bad news. The flop came out 6c-4c-4d, giving Lee a significant edge. But one of the 3 remaining cards in the deck that would relinquish the lead fell as the 8c hit the turn, and Yang would take the lead. It wasn’t over as Lee still had the club flush draw, but the river card was the 9d, eliminating Lee in 7th place. He earned $705,229 for bettering all but 6 players from that massive field.
His good run continued in 2007, as after the WSOP ended, Lee saw a 2nd place finish in the $2,000 Caesars Palace Classic No Limit Hold em’ Event, and also took 1st place in the Project Lifesaver – Executive Poker Tour Main Event in Atlantic City. Lee’s good run in 2007 scored more than $800,000 on the year in live tournament winnings. And at this year’s WSOP, Lee scored 3 more cashes, giving him 5 WSOP cashes during his lifetime.
Lee has been a force in the online poker industry for years, and this year signed with Lock Poker as one of their featured Pro’s (in fact, you can receive an online bankroll bonus by signing up with Lock Poker and using the Promo Code: CHILDS by clicking here: http://www.acumenpoker.net/Site/Home.html and using the download link on the right). Lee is also an instructor with the WPT Boot Camp, and a regular columnist with Ante Up Magazine.
As a member of the Bad Beat on Cancer Advisory Council, Lee will be playing the Twitter Poker Tour Charity event to benefit Bad Beat on Cancer on November 15th. You can join Lee and a host of other pro’s, and help us by putting a Bad Beat on Cancer.
Tournament Details
Place: Full Tilt Poker
Date: November 15th, 2009
Time: 6:15PM EST
Cost: $10 ($5 entry plus $5 donation to BBoC)
Tourney ID#: 113220604
Tourney PW: TPTFORBBOC
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