Amir Vahedi
Amir Vahedi is one of the most famous poker players who ever lived. His list of accomplishments is very long and his play can be summed up by one of his quotes, “In order to live, you must be willing to die.”
Amir Vahedi was the 2001 No Limit Texas Hold’em Player of the Year, and in 2003 he finished second place in CardPlayer Magazine’s Player of the Year award competition. He was only a few points behind first place Men “The Master” Nguyen and would likely have won the award had the year been three days longer, as he won another major tournament on January 3, 2004. Amir Vahedi also made the final table of the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event.
Amir Vahedi was born in Tehran, the capital of Iran, in 1961. He served in the war between Iran and Iraq and later fled to West Germany as a refugee in 1981. He eventually moved to Sherman Oaks, California. He is one of the more charming and amusing personalities you will find at the poker tables, always joking and laughing and almost always having a cigar with him, sometimes lit. He has a very aggressive style of play that makes him quite unpredictable, although he also gets caught bluffing quite frequently.
Vahedi won a WSOP gold bracelet in No Limit Texas Hold’em in 2003, making this a very successful year for him at the WSOP. He is the Season 3 champion of the Ultimate Poker Challenge and has made five World Poker Tour final tables. He was also the first person to tutor actor Ben Affleck in poker, and Ben has had a couple of big wins thanks to Vahedi’s advice. However, Vahedi did pawn off Affleck’s tutoring over to fellow pro Annie Duke.
Amir Vahedi is the kind of person everyone likes, even when he’s knocking them out. His victims may not like getting eliminated but they always have fun when it is Amir Vahedi eliminating them.
Amir Vahedi passed away on January 8, 2010 from complications related to his diabetes. He was only 46.
