Brian Rast is a professional poker player currently residing in Las Vegas and Rio de Janeiro (originally from Poway, CA and born in Denver, CO).
A true legend of the game, Rast began his career as a cash game player playing both live and online poker.  Online he battled under the screen name “tsarrast” and quickly proved himself to be a rising star in the online cash game arenas. After Black Friday in 2011, however, he mostly stopped playing online and moved solely to the live poker arena where he quickly rose to the top and stayed there. During the 2010s, Rast branched out and started playing more tournaments as well, and his now $25.4M in live tournament earnings include 6 WSOP bracelets, 3 of which are in the prestigious Poker Players Championship event which features a $50,000 buy-in and many of the top poker players in the world. Rast’s best live cash to date is his win in the inaugural $500k buy-in Super High Roller Bowl in 2015, where he topped a star-studded field to take home a massive $7.5M.

Like most players, Brian started out as a Holdem player, but his curiosity and penchant for taking on new challenges saw him first learn Omaha, and later all the mix games.  At this point, he's a well-rounded player who plays all the poker variants in both cash games and tournaments. Rast has been a staple in some of the highest stakes cash games in Vegas for years.
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Rast was voted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2023.

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