10 Facts About Isaac Haxton You Probably Didn’t Know

Isaac Haxton started playing poker at the age of 17. In 2006, he set himself an ambitious goal: to earn $1,000,000 online in a year. He achieved this, but with a slight deviation.

He became the best offline tournament poker player in 2023, securing $16.9M in prize money. Here are the most interesting facts from his biography.

Fact #1: From the age of 3, Isaac Haxton played checkers. From the age of 4, he played chess. At 6, he began participating in chess tournaments, but by the age of 10, his interest in them waned due to a lack of progress. He then switched to Magic: The Gathering (MTG), and by 15, he became one of the best MTG players. He dreamed of earning a living through gaming, but there was no money in MTG. That’s when older members of the MTG community introduced him to poker.

Fact #2: He started playing poker at the age of 17. Friends from MTG told him that poker was like Magic, only much simpler and with much more money in it.

Fact #3: He registered his first online poker account under his mother’s name. He made his first deposit by sending $50 to a friend via regular mail. Ultimately, he managed to turn this initial deposit into several thousand dollars. His mother was shocked when she received a bank transfer to her account for $40,000.

Fact #4: After high school, Isaac Haxton enrolled in Brown University (an Ivy League school) to study computer science. At the same time, he started playing SNGs with friends for $5 and $10 and grinding online Limit Hold’em.

Fact #5: In his second year of college, Isaac Haxton became known in the poker community as the guy who had made thousands of dollars playing poker online. Around this time, he met his future wife, Zoe. In 2013, Haxton proposed to Zoe, and the newlyweds moved to Malta.

Fact #6: The year 2006 was a turning point in his life and poker career. The United States passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. Isaac Haxton decided to take an academic leave from university and earn $1,000,000 online during this time.

Fact #7: However, Haxton earned $862K, not online but offline. In the fall of 2006, he won a $8K WPT Championship Event package to the Bahamas in a $170 online satellite. He then finished in 2nd place in that tournament. During the tournament, he was remembered for one of the coolest bluffs in the history of TV poker. After his academic leave, Haxton returned to university and earned his degree in computer science.

Fact #8: Isaac Haxton, Justin Bonomo, Steve O’Dwyer, and Scott Seiver made it onto the pages of the glossy magazine Maxim. The guys moved to Las Vegas, where they settled in Panorama Towers. The July 2010 issue of Maxim magazine featured an article titled “From Geeks to Gangsters: How Four Guys Changed Poker in Vegas Forever, Playing $60K Hands.”

MAXIM July 2010: "From Geeks to Gangsters: How Four Guys Changed Poker in Vegas Forever, Playing $60K Hands."

Fact #9: Isaac Haxton has amassed $48,680,572 in live tournament winnings, $16,961,907 of which came in 2023 alone. Here are his biggest wins of 2023: