Christian "Charder" Harder

Christian Harder is a professional poker player who made his first live event cash in 2007. In the first 4 years, he won 4 events, cashed 40 times, made 14 final tables, cashed in 14 WSOP events, and earned over $2 million. He was also a successful online player, earning over $3 million.

Christian was born November 3, 1987 and raised in Annapolis, Maryland where he still resides. He excelled in school and at the age of 16, he discovered the game of poker, playing the game with friends and online through his teen years. He continued his education at Salisbury University in Annapolis, but after earning a decent living by playing online, Christian decided to take a semester off from school to focus on poker.

That “one semester” turned into years as Christian, playing online as “Charder30,” began going deep in big online events. On Full Tilt poker, he won the $65K Guaranteed for $22,968 in 2008, the Poker Million Qualifier for $22,000 and the $33K Rebuy for $22,000 in 2009, the $60K and $40K Guarantee for $20,748 and $20,176 respectively in 2010.

On PokerStars in 2008, Christian won the Nightly Hundred Grand for $20,895, and in 2009, over a span of just 5 weeks; he won 3 events for a total of close to $126,000. His biggest cashes in 2010 were for $63,500 for runner-up in the Sunday 500, and $46,512 for winning a $150k Guaranteed event.

In 2007, Christian made his first live cash at the Empire State Hold ’em Championships in Verona, where he earned $484 for finishing 27th in the $300 NLHE event. His next cash was much bigger. After winning a satellite qualifier online, he collected $200,000 for finishing 7th in the 2008 EPT Main Event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. At the EPT German Open, he finished 8th for €85,500 in the €7,700 NLHE, before his runner-up finish in the $1,000 Championship event for $30,500 at the East Coast Poker Championships in Verona. His other cash that year was at the WPT World Poker Finals Mashantucket, where he finished 44th in the Main Event for $23,320.

Christian started 2009 by cashing at the Winter Poker Meltdown, and took 4th in the $2,000 NLHE at the Borgata Open to earn $31,780. He made his first WPT televised final table when he finished 4th in the $25,000 Main Event Five Star World Poker Classic to collect $571,965. At the WSOP, he cashed twice, finishing 26th for $15,270 in the $2,000 NLHE.  While in Las Vegas, he cashed at the Deep Stack Extravaganza, and won the Bellagio Cup $5,000 NLHE event to earn $204,550.

To finish 2009, Christian cashed in the WSOP Europe Main Event, and at the World Poker Finals. He also cashed twice at the Festa al Lago Las Vegas, winning the $1,000 NLHE for $32,683, and finishing 4th in the $5,000 NLHE event for $26,675.

In 2010, Christian’s first cash was for $81,169 which he earned by winning the $2,000 NLHE at the PokerStars North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun. At the WSOP, he cashed 7 times, with his best efforts being 14th in the $5,000 NLHE 6-Max for $26,188, and 100th in the Main Event for $57,102. Back in Verona, he was runner-up in the $2,300 NLHE Main Event at the PokerStars Empire State Hold \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\’em Championships to collect $69,222. He also cashed at the Borgata Deep Stack, took 3rd in for $18,624 in the $2,000 Heads-up at the Borgata Open, and cashed at the EPT/UKIPT London.

By October 2011, Christian had cashed 7 times for the year, including 4 WSOP cashes. First, he cashed at the Borgata Winter Open, and then took 17th for $42,476 in the WPT Championship Event at the Five Star World Poker Classic. At the WSOP, his biggest cashes were for $132,623 for finishing 4th in the $3,000 PLO, and finishing 92nd for $64,531 in the Main Event. Returning to the WPT Borgata Open, Christian won the $3,000 NLHE Heads-up event to take home $61,690.

Despite spending more time playing live events, Christian says he still misses being able to play online from the comfort of his own home. Although they can no longer watch him play online, his friends and fans keep up with his accomplishments by following @realcharder30 on Twitter.