Tournament and high-stakes player Steve "MrSmokey1" Billirakis is a man of few words. Day after day, he rakes pots, calls down bluffs, and quietly counts his winnings. The game he brings to the felt is not flashy. There's no trash-talk. There are no fancy chip tricks. There's... more

Tournament and high-stakes player Steve "MrSmokey1" Billirakis is a man of few words. Day after day, he rakes pots, calls down bluffs, and quietly counts his winnings. The game he brings to the felt is not flashy. There's no trash-talk. There are no fancy chip tricks. There's nothing that would draw attention his way, until he finally blips on your radar, and then your chips are gone. What just happened? Well, you probably made a mistake.

In no-limit hold'em, the player who makes the fewest mistakes usually comes out on top. "I don't like to make any mistakes," said Billirakis. "In the long run, you're going to win way more than everyone else if you focus on not making any errors."

Players in the know talk about MrSmokey1 with reverence. Amongst the cream of the Internet crop, he's the players' player. Online, he's won numerous events, cashed for more than $600,000, and made the final table of the PokerStars Sunday event twice.

Billirakis' live play had been limited, until recently, because he was only 20 years old. Despite his age, he had finished in third place twice in big buy-in live tournaments, for a total of $252,000. Then, upon hitting that magic age, he went on to live every poker player's dream: playing in the World Series of Poker and winning a bracelet. He took home the bracelet and the $526,000 first-place prize in the $5,000 half limit/half no-limit World Championship event. He also became the youngest player ever to win a WSOP bracelet at 21 years and 10 days old, beating out the previous record-holder, Jeff Madsen, by just 25 days.

According to Billirakis, "I really don't see myself doing anything else. I want to be the best player in the world at some point."  With his success online and his shiny new bracelet, this goal doesn't exactly qualify as an illusion of grandeur. close bio