Antony Lellouche

Like so many others, Antony Lellouche entered poker full time as a result of the poker boom. Unlike so many others, he has found enormous amounts of success, to the tune of more than $2.3 million.

Born on February 24, 1981, Antony Lellouche hails from France and claims Paris as his home. His early years consisted of education and a subsequent job in the world of real estate. His knack for business and his friendly personality made him a successful real estate agent.

Technically, Lellouche came into the world of poker prior to the official boom. He began playing the game in 1998 amongst friends and quickly realized he was more interested in playing competitively. Two years later, he was playing in casinos. The game was very popular already in France, so there was no shortage of tournaments at the Aviation Club in Paris.

From cash games, Lellouche took up the idea of tournaments in 2001, with his first recorded cash as a second place finish in a PLHE event as part of that year’s Spring Tournament series. He dabbled in tournaments in 2002 as well, but it was the following year that he became more serious about the game. He won a €50 NLHE event at the Spring Tournament in 2003 and final tabled two other events, one a pot-limit dealer’s choice and the other a PLHE/PLO. And he became a regular at final tables.

In 2004, Lellouche traveled to the United States to try his hand at the World Series of Poker, and he not only won a Bellagio Weekly tournament during his stay, but he cashed in two WSOP events, one a final table in a $2,000 NLHE event for $61,380.

He began to play larger events around the world, like the European Poker Tour events and the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. But it wasn’t until 2007 that he began to make a splash on those fronts. That year, he made the final table of the EPT London £5,200 NLHE Main Event, finishing sixth for £97,843. And in 2008, he finished second at the EPT San Remo Main Event final table for €505,000, following that up with an eighth place finish in the EPT London Main Event for £81,569.

Wins came in the form of smaller events, such as a NLHE preliminary event in Marrakech and an Evian Poker Open event in the Rhone-Alps. He also made the final table of the EPT Deauville €20,000 High Roller event at the 2010 EPT Deauville, finishing second for €150,000.

Lellouche has made a career of poker, a successful one at that, and though much of his winnings hail from NLHE tournaments, his true specialty is PLO. And when not in tournaments, he often looks to play high stakes cash games, sometimes in the $200/$400 range for PLO.

As a member of France’s Team Winimax, he plays online poker as well, though he only began to play recently and takes it slow, moving up slowly from $20 limits to $50. He has built an online bankroll as well, and while he prefers live events, he is warming up to the online games.