Mike Shariati

Mike Shariati
Mike Shariati (2016)
Personal information
Year of birth	1973 or 1974
place of birth	Iran Shiraz
place of residence	United States Irvine
Live Poker Tournament Achievements
Highest prize money	0.$ 675,942
Total prize money	$ 1,902,779
World Series of Poker
Bracelets	no
Cashes	9
Best main event	463rd ( 2016 )
Main Event of the World Poker Tour
title	1
Cashes	5
Last updated: August 8, 2020

Mike Shariati (* 1973 or 1974 in Shiraz , Iran ) is a professional American poker player . He won the Main Event of the World Poker Tour in September 2015 , where he was named Player of the Year in 2015/16 .

Personal

Shariati grew up with four siblings in his native city of Shiraz in Iran . In his childhood and youth he played ball sports and did kung fu and taekwondo . Shariati moved to the United States after finishing school and studied chemistry and biology at the University of South Florida in Tampa . During his master’s degree , he switched to genetic engineering and successfully completed his studies. He then moved to Los Angeles and initially worked for a pharmaceutical company before going into business for himself in order to better manage his time for his poker career.

Poker career

Shariati has been participating in renowned live tournaments since 2011 .

Until the beginning of 2015, Shariati achieved his first live cash placements exclusively at smaller tournaments in Gardena and Los Angeles . At the end of March 2015, he prevailed against 4,553 other players at the Mega Millions in Los Angeles and received a prize of 275,000 US dollars for a deal . At the same place, Shariati won the Main Event of the World Poker Tour (WPT) in early September 2015 and secured the main prize of over 675,000 US dollars, which is the highest prize money of his career to date. In March 2016, the American made it to the final heads-up at the WPT Main Event in Los Angeles , but had to admit defeat to Dietrich Fast and received more than $ 650,000 for his second place. At the WPT Main Event in Hollywood , Florida , he won another cash in the 2015/16 WPT season, at the end of which he was named Player of the Year in the tournament series. In July 2016 Shariati was successful for the first time at the World Series of Poker in the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and came in the money in two tournaments of the No Limit Hold'em variant , u. a. he finished 463rd in the main event . Since then there have been no major tournament successes.