The UK's John Tabatabai's ultra aggressive style saw him quickly gain a name for himself within the poker community, consistantly winning cash and going deep in several tournaments before being sponsored to play at higher limits. John later joined the team at Badbeat and after learning to discipline his aggression has consistantly performed well ever since. His most recent wins have been particularly impressive, coming second in the WSOPE main event after being beat by Betfair's very own Annette Obrestad, before winning the All Africa Poker Tournament in March 2008.
Tabatabai is originally from Cardiff where I lived with his parents and two younger sisters now live in London.
On his Betair Poker Pro Team Player Profile page John says:
Both online and live poker "are cool, very different. I love online because you can play in the comfort of your own home, which for me is with 3 monitors, awesome system, tv, and overlooking the river. Very calming after a bad session if needbe. Also, online gives you access to huge game selection and multi tabling which is much more fun as you have to concentrate 100% . Live play is also really cool as you get to talk to your opponents, find out about peoples lives, get extra information, how they look during each hand, do they look uncomfortable etc etc."
His biggest success was winning the South African Champs 2008 for $127,000.
So What is his most memorable hand?
"2 hands stick out at the moment. Firstly, many years ago when $5k was the world to me, I was at the final of the first ever online LEOCOP (ladbrokes lol) and down to the last 3 players. First prize was $55k + $15k cruise package + trophy. there were 2 of us with 85% of the chips, the other guy had only 15% of the chips left, naturally, the other chip leader refused to do a deal, and we managed to get it all in preflop with me holding AA and him having AK. The flop was instantly QJ-10 which had me in tears for about 2 weeks. DISGUSTING!!!"
"Another hand was when one of my best friends, also many years ago, did a spin up with $1k at 50-100 HENL. Sat at the table and pretty much only played AA or KK. He managed to get up to $8k. At this point i was threatening to turn the computer off, to get him off. to stop, bank anything but continue. Anyway, just as he was about to leave, he got dealt 10-10 on the button. Someone raised before him, he just flat called (scared of course) The flop came K-10-2 no flush draws. The guy bet out, and my friend just went straight all in. The first guy instantly called with AK. $16,500 pot 3 years ago. When dollar was strong. Of course turn Q river J. STANDARD !!!"
The other professional poker players who make up the Betfair Poker Team are Anette Obrestad and Sorel Mizi
Tabatabai hopes to win a bracelet at the WSOP, and to promote and represent BF to the best of my ability. Until then you can play against John at one of Betfair Poker's Beat the Pros online poker Tournaments.
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