Viva Las Vegas! Adam Hendrix Channels ‘The King’ In WSOP Main Event

The World Series of Poker main event came with quite an interesting start for Adam Hendrix – donning an Elvis Presley costume on his first day of action. A little mojo from the king of rock ‘n’ roll culminated with a sixth-place finish for $1.9 million.

That single cash alone almost tripled his biggest previous best score, which came in 2024 with a win in a $3,000 side event at the WPT World Championship for $629,000. The Alaska native now has $10 million in live tournament earnings in a career dating back to 2016.

It’s been a massive few years for Hendrix, who won a Poker Masters event in 2021 for $186,300 and took runner-up in a U.S. Poker Open event in the same year for another $144,500. That was followed by additional wins in both series the following year for a total of $393,600.

In 2023, he grabbed a PokerGO Tour PLO title for $172,710, took the top spot in a $5,000 event at the Seminole Rock N’ Roll Poker Open for $192,150, and fifth in the $50,000 PLO at the WSOP for $570,671. More recently, the 32-year-old added a PokerGO Cup win in February for $316,050.

Hendrix was recently a guest on the Table 1 podcast, talking about his time growing up in Alaska and abraod, building igloos, learning poker from his grandmother, the prop bet that brought on the Elvis appearance, and much more. Highlights appear below. You can also watch or listen to the entire episode on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or any podcast app.

Adam Hendrix: I was ​​born in Anchorage, Alaska. My dad’s from Homer, Alaska, which is a town four hours south, a smaller fishing town. He moved there at the start of high school. We left Alaska when I was eight, but we always kept it as our home because my dad is in the oil business.

We traveled internationally a bunch. I lived in a bunch of places like Scotland, Egypt, and Texas. Summers, we’d come back and fish. I remember as a kid, the plow man would push all the snow into the center of the cul de sac. All the kids from the street would make igloos. We would hide in the igloos and play all day. That was pretty awesome as a 5-year-old.

Justin Young: You guys run any sit-n-go’s in there?

Adam Hendrix: No poker being played. I did play some poker at my grandma’s. She was always part of a card club. I think they called it the Pink Hats. It’s an older ladies group. They’d get together every week, do something like lunch or cards. So we just played a little poker. We played this game called seven card no peaky, which was a pretty tough game.

Art Parmann: We would also play that, at the end of the night at the home games that I would go to.

Adam Hendrix: I think we were playing for a penny or something. I didn’t have a bankroll, so my grandma would throw some money at me.

Justin Young: Your first backer?

Adam Hendrix: Yeah, I kept everything. I just stiffed her.

Justin Young: You guys didn’t settle up after every round?

Adam Hendrix: That was the first time I ever played cards. And then from there, I remember summers in Alaska when we were fishing. My dad usually woke me up pretty early to go fishing sometimes at 6 a.m. At 12 years old you’re like, ‘I want to not wake up at 5 a.m. Let me stay home and watch TV.’ So, I watched the WSOP main event on ESPN.

Justin Young: What was the first time you watched the main event?

Adam Hendrix: I want to say it was probably after we moved from Alaska. We’d come back in summers from Scotland, when I was probably like 9 or 10 . I remember 2009 was a big year. Before that, I think it was just after Moneymaker.

Justin Young: So maybe you’re more of a Jamie Gold product?

Adam Hendrix: Jerry Yang. The poker gods looked out for him. He prayed the most during the final table, so he won.

Hendrix later discussed living abroad.

Adam Hendrix: Aberdeen, Scotland, which is northern Scotland, is very dark. It’s called the Granite City, because everything is covered in granite. Our house had gargoyles on it and stuff. It was sort of a medieval, cool town near the coast.

We were there for three or four years and I picked up soccer, and it became one of the main sports I played. There was one soccer game I remember because the Scottish weather is pretty brutal. It can be snow, hail, and sunny in 30 minutes. One game started off like 70 degrees in the sun, then it hailed, then it snowed, then it got sunny, and then it rained again, and then a thunderstorm stopped the game.

We moved to The Woodlands, Texas, which is outside Houston, another oil place. I spent middle school there and it was great. I was better at soccer, but American football in Texas is crazy – the high school and middle school scene. We had 1,200 people in our middle school and 200 people on the football team. We had four teams of 50, and it was A, B, C, and D teams. You had rankings of the teams, which is insane. Morning practice at 6 a.m. before school, it was pretty much a nightmare. I played as receiver and field goal kicker.

But I quit football after getting a pretty bad injury. I went up for a pass, and some guy led with his helmet. It’s called spearing, which is illegal, and bruised my spleen. I was out for months, but I remember vividly we went to the hospital as Hurricane Rita was coming through, and my dad took me in a really small convertible, cramped up. We drove an hour to the hospital.

With the hurricanes coming through, they were like, ‘We’re going to lose power in this hospital. You can go home with your parents or you can stay here.’ I remember they put me back in the car. They gave me painkillers and I spent a week on a breathing apparatus. I didn’t have to have surgery, but I was the waterboy the rest of the season.

Hendrix began playing poker in high school, including for cheesesteaks.

Adam Hendrix: I went to Virginia Tech for engineering. My dad’s an engineer, so it’s something that sort of naturally fit in. I had a good math and science base, and did that for a few years, and then realized I didn’t know what job I’d like to do in engineering, so I switched to economics and a minor in statistics. I carried that out with a side of poker.

Art Parmann: Look at the brain of this guy.

Justin Young: What does a side of poker mean?

Adam Hendrix: My freshman dorm was pretty interesting… and we got to know each other pretty well. Somebody one day was like, ‘Let’s play some poker.’ Obviously, I shipped the first one for 10 bucks.

From there, we played some freerolls. There’s a place called Hokie House at Virginia Tech, which was just a bar and you’d go up there and play a freeroll for $15 or $20 of food and drink credit. I was under 21 so I’d just get cheesesteaks, while everybody else was getting mixed drinks. But I would crush those. By the end of graduation, I opened a dresser drawer and had like 200 bucks (in credit), and was like, ‘Oh, man, these are probably expired.’

We created the first poker club at Virginia Tech from that little game in our dorm. I started playing a little online. I remember post-COVID, it was really hard to play online. You could use crypto to deposit. I’d have to go to the local Safeway to do a Western Union deposit to somebody in Nicaragua, and you hoped it hit your account. I just remember doing that and buying credit cards from the 7-Eleven, because they would deny a normal Visa.

I always thought online was a good way to get better at poker, since I was pretty isolated with who I was playing with live. The competition wasn’t tough. One day we went to a neighboring town with my buddy for this freeroll at a place called Skeeter’s or something ridiculous. Five minutes in and me and my buddy bust. We’re like, ‘What the heck do we do now?’ My friend’s got a big stack. He’s like, ‘You guys can leave.’ This guy comes up to me and asks, ‘You want to come play cash at my house? We have a home game.’

We didn’t ask the blinds or anything. We had only played for $5 or $10 at this point. There were cellar doors that open up from the ground. I thought, ‘Well, this feels sketchy.’ I was 19 and had $62 on me. Who cares? Just don’t kill me. We just walk in and it’s smoke-filled with 40-year-old guys with cowboy hats. They’re like, ‘How much do you want to buy in for?’ I’m like, ‘What are the blinds?’ – ‘$.50-$1.’ Oh god. That’s big money.

I bought in for $60. My first hand, I had A-10. The flop came A-A-10. I was like, ‘Well, this is nice.’ I was up 60 bucks right away. I think my friend lost, but I won $120 and I was on cloud nine.

I still graduated and worked two years as a software engineer for a government contractor out in Northern Virginia. I wanted to build a bankroll in poker because it’s such a weird job where you have to bring money every day to play. I was always worried about going broke and I saw plenty of horror stories from Twitter. The DOJ shutting down online poker, stuff like that.

So, I need to have x amount of money. I would stream online poker with a small following back in the day, and then just grinded up a bankroll to quit [the day job]. I think by the time I quit, I had $75,000 to $85,000. That’s a big chunk, a reasonable nest egg that I could afford rent and then variance and sell a little bit.

The conversation transitioned to Hendrix playing in the WSOP main event in 2025 while wearing an Elvis costume as part of a prop bet. The getup may have been good luck as he went on to make the final table.

Adam Hendrix: The WSOP tag team had like 110 teams left. We were at a table with Alan Keating, Cody Daniels. And then Nick Marchington comes for the first few hands. We were trying to figure out a prop bet and decided on a last longer for Elvis.

So, we’re grinding through with like 58 left. I get it in with bottom set on the flop for 40 big lines each. On 9-7-3, I have threes. A guy has A-9 offsuit. It comes A-9 on the turn and river and I’m out. Then I have to go get this Elvis outfit a few days later.

Justin Young: The photos are great.

Adam Hendrix: My mom’s from East Tennessee and there are huge Elvis fans in that part of the world. They grew up with Elvis. When he died, they all cried. It was like a funeral for weeks. So, I loved Elvis growing up, always danced to his music and stuff like that. I didn’t mind dressing up as him.

I called a local costume store. There’s one near the Las Vegas Convention Center in some strip mall that I’d never seen before. It’s the randomest assortment of bars, Mexican restaurants, and a costume store. I call them, ‘You have Elvis outfits?’ They have hundreds. It was one of those doors you have to hit the doorbell and then somebody will let you in. I’m like, ‘Why is this like Fort Knox?’ I read the sign. It says, ‘Must wear a mask upon entry.’ I’m like, ‘This is 2021 all of a sudden?’

I go in. The guy hands me a mask. ‘Are you the Elvis guy?’ ‘I’m the Elvis guy.’ ‘What are you using it for?’ I said, ‘A poker tournament.’ And he says not white, it’ll get dirty. ‘Here’s the black one.’ I put it on and it fit well.

There are shoulder pads in this thing. He gives me a white T-shirt, boots, and a wig that just fit perfectly. I don’t know what’s going on, but it looked pretty nice. It was $160. Then I look at the insurance policy. He makes me sign it and it’s $960. Why is it $960? He’s like, ‘Well, if there’s any issues with the outfit, if you tear it or stain it, it’s $960.’ This outfit is not worth more than $200, but whatever.

Then I headed to the main and I rolled up in the outfit. I thought I’d get more looks. But then again, it’s Vegas. Everybody’s like, ‘Another Elvis?’

About The Table 1 Podcast

Hosted by high-stakes poker pros Art Parmann and Justin Young, the Table 1 Podcast is on a mission to make poker fun again. Tune in to see world-class pros talk poker, gambling, and all manner of life experiences on and off the felt. Visit the website for the podcast, newsletter, or even to get in the game. ♠

• Photos – PokerGO