Steve Brecher does not share the typical story of a professional poker player’s road to fortune and fame. Brecher was not a significant fan of the game as a child; he never used a fake ID to play in a casino, nor did he spend his college weekends around dimly lit, back room poker tables. In fact, Steve Brecher did not turn pro until nearing retirement age from a long and successful career as a computer software developer.

Born in Queens, New York in 1945, Steve Brecher holds a bachelors degree in philosophy. If you check out any of his documented writings, online or in text, you can clearly see how Steve “philosoph-ies” the game of poker. He has even declared that in some situations, he would prefer to hold pocket-5s over pocket-Aces. As ridiculous as it sounds, his philosophy on the matter does make a little sense, depending on the situation.

After moving to California, Brecher played his first game of poker among strangers at the Palo Alto ‘Cameo Club’ in 1966, dealing No Limit Ace to 5 Lowball with a single Joker in the deck. Though he occasionally joined in a game of Lowball in the following years, Steve focused honing his skills in Limit poker games. It wasn’t until August 25, 1993 that Steve Brecher discovered the game of Texas Hold’em.

After many years of a fruitful career as a computer software developer, retirement was looming, and it would seem fate had another path laid out before Steve Brecher. In the mid 1990’s, he began to appear in major poker tournaments. As the years went on, Steve Brecher has become a common face amongst the tables, especially at the World Poker Tour. Steve has earned himself a total of 16 major tournament cashes to date, and professional poker career winnings totalling $668,306.

Steve Brecher and the WSOP
Steve Brecher’s history with the World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a short but momentous one. The WSOP was the first major tournament Brecher finished in the money, first in on April 18, 1998. In the opening event, Limit Hold’em, Brecher took home an 18th place purse of $9,296.

Steve came back the following year to earn his second, and final to date, WSOP cash in Event #7 of the 1999 WSOP, No Limit Hold’em. Against a field of 350 participants, Brecher ate away at the competition to finish in 8th place, pocketing $15,350.

Steve Brecher and the WPT
Brecher is best known around the professional poker community for his multiple appearances, not to mention valuable cashes, along the World Poker Tour (WPT). Steve Brecher’s fortunate career in the WPT began in 2004, during the second season of the tour. The skilled poker player found himself seated at Event #13 of the World Poker Challenge, only to come up short in 10th position for a purse of $1,004. A mere 6 days later, April 1st in fact, Brecher proved that he was no fool on this of all days. He carved a path through the No Limit Hold’em tables to finish in 11th place, earning $19,604.

Pleased with his substantial win, Steve continued on to the Five-Star World Poker Classic - the 2004 WPT Championship, No Limit Hold’em Main Event on April 23rd. With a $20k paycheck in less than a month, Steve Brecher had confidence on his side. Once again, Steve skillfully whittled his way through the opposition, even claiming a seat among the final table of 10. Once again, however, Steve came up short of the big prize; little to complain about however as his 6th place finish earned Steve Brecher his largest single-match cash to date, $232,862.

Having seen such success in the 2nd season of the WPT, it was no surprise that Steve Brecher returned for season 3. His first WPT success of the year came on August 1, 2004, at the Mirage Poker Showdown, where Brecher finished 11th in the No Limit Hold’em tournament, worth $32,401. Brecher followed up that win with another WPT cash in February of 2005 at the LA Poker Classic, earning $30,988 for a 25th place finish in the Main Event. Two months later, Steve Brecher was awarded another $30,000 for finishing 73rd in the WPT Five-Star World Poker Classic Main Event.

In the WPT Season 4, Brecher once again left his stamp on the poker world, taking 15th position on October 21, 2005 at the Doyle Brunson North American Championship, cashing in the No Limit Hold’em event for $34,485.

It wasn’t until the 6th season of the WPT that Brecher’s name was again topic worthy, as he took 37th place in the Legends Of Poker No Limit Hold’em Championship for $16,005, followed by a 27th place finish in the World Poker Finals No Limit Hold’em Championship on November 17, 2007, pocketing a purse of $24,318.

Steve Brecher’s Other Achievements
Steve took part in the Pot of Gold Tournament and Winter Pot of Gold Tournament spanning the months of the year 2000. Though the cashes were small, these came early in his career, helping Steve to further hone his poker skills and boost his confidence t the tables. Brecher placed in the money three times at these events, finishing 6th, 8th and 17th for a total of $2,751.

In December of 2001, Steve Brecher participated in the Eldorado Poker Classic, once again fine-tuning his exceptional abilities, while pocketing a 5th place purse of $994.

Brecher’s most recent substantial earnings came in the 2005 United States Poker Championship, a No Limit Hold’em tournament that saw Steve Brecher carving a path to his closest true victory yet; a 3rd place overall finish worth $218,250 - Steve Brecher’s second largest single-match cash of his career.

As a retired computer software programmer, it is no surprise that Steve Brecher has developed a poker software platform that runs user-inputted poker scenarios to determine probabilities. The software program, entitled Hold’Em Showdown, is specifically designed to give percentage-based probabilities of an All-In Showdown situation involving 2 or more players. Hold’Em Showdown is a public domain download, meaning it is not copyrighted, and anyone can download and/or distribute the software for free.

Steve Brecher and Team Full Tilt
Steve Brecher is a proud member of Team Full Tilt, a remarkable group of professional poker players who can be found exclusively playing online poker at the immensely popular, Internet-based poker community, Full Tilt Poker. Steve sits among some of the most influential names in the poker industry, including Phil Ivey, Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson and Howard Lederer, just to name a few.

Steve Brecher Outside of Poker
Steve Brecher currently resides in Nevada, somewhere between Reno and Lake Tahoe. Unmarried and without children, Steve spends his time away from the poker tables hiking, watching movies, surfing the web and greatly enjoys aviation. According to Steve himself, he likes to speak in a “paronomastic” manner, which may sound very intelligent and philosophical, but is actually Steve’s amusing way of stating that he likes to use ‘humorous puns’.