T.J. Cloutier
T.J. Cloutier was born in Albany, California on October 13, 1939. T.J. received an athletic scholarship to attend University of California for football and baseball. He had to drop out of college for financial reasons, and later joined the army, where he learned to play poker. After getting out of the army, T.J. Cloutier played football in the Canadian Football League until a knee injury ended his career. T.J. started up a food company, but moved to Texas to work on oil rigs when his company folded. He played poker on his off days, and he quit his job when he realized he was making more money playing poker.
T.J. Cloutier has had a lot of success at the World Series of Poker, winning six bracelets (current as of January, 2012). He is also the only person to win all three types of Omaha poker tournaments at the World Series of Poker, which include Pot Limit, no Limit, and Limit Hi-Lo. T.J. has also fallen just short of the World Championship several times, as he has finished in the top five at the World Series of Poker Main Event four times, with second place finishes in 1985 and 2000. T.J. Cloutier has also made it to the final table of World Poker Tour events a few times, and has been on several other televised poker shows.
T.J. has co-written four poker books with Tom McEvoy. These books are Championship Tournament Practice Hands, Championship Holdem, Championship Omaha, and Championship No-Limit and Pot Limit Hold’em. T.J. Cloutier has written one other book How To Win The Championship: Hold’em Strategies For The Final Table.” T.J. Cloutier has also contributed to CardPlayer Magazine.
T.J. Cloutier lives in Richardson, Texas. He has a poker hand name after him, the J-9 of clubs. This is because he once flopped three straight flushes in one year with this hand.
