Player Spotlight: Brian Rast
Brian Rast is one of the best and most respected poker players – ever.
Born in Denver, Colorado, Brian’s family moved to California nearly 30 years ago where he attended Poway High School. He was the class valedictorian before enrolling at Stanford University, one of the top academic colleges in the country.
Rast learned how to play poker in high school and, while at Stanford, founded a weekly poker club in 2003. Later that year, he went back home to Poway to hone his poker skills.
Determined to one day make a comfortable living playing cards, Brian worked a temp job to fund his bankroll. That job didn’t last long. It took him only a few weeks to build up enough of a roll to play regularly. A year later, Rast dropped out of college to pursue a poker career.
While we don’t advocate quitting school, it’s hard to argue with Brian’s decision. Just 15 years later, he’s become one of the most feared poker players in the world.
Rast has over $21 million in earnings and four WSOP bracelets. His claim to fame came in 2015 when he won the inaugural Super High Roller Bowl on Poker Central, a $500,000 buy-in tournament that year, for $7.5 million.
The “Rastinator” has been one of the top cash game pros, especially in mixed games, for years in Las Vegas. He’s also traveled to popular poker destinations such as Macau, China to play cards. While he can still dominate no-limit games, Brian is now more of a mixed game pro.
“Years back, I’d achieved a very high level of No Limit Hold’em play and was comfortable in high rollers and high stakes cash games,” he told Poker Central. “I turned my focus to playing mixed games.”
