Antonio Esfandiari was born in Tehran and moved to the United States when he was nine. After high school he went to college for about a year until he saw a bartender from a restaurant do a magic trick. He went to a magic store the following day, bought the trick, and went home and practiced. He practiced magic twelve hours a day for two years. By the time he was nineteen, he was a professional magician. He would perform his magic in the restaurant where he worked and would give his business card out to the customers.This led to having a large clientele and he started doing his magic at private parties.
After about a year of performing magic, he stepped foot into a casino for the first time. Antonio Esfandiar worked in a restaurant in San Jose California and did magic tricks on the side. He did not begin following the tournament trail until the advent of the WPT. Always popular with poker fans, he will often be seen giving a magic, sleight of hand show after being eliminated from a tournament. he has won twice on the WPT series and has played well in the WSOP events.
Antonio is an up and coming young professional that will continue to improve and win. So far, Antonio has had great results in the short time he has been a professional. He finished fifth at the World Series of Poker in the $2000 No Limit Holdem event, third at the WPT Lucky Chances in 2002, and beat 382 players to capture first place at the Commerce Casino World Poker Tour event, winning over a million dollars for his first place finish.
The very next day he came back to finish sixth at the World Poker Tour Invitational, where his roommate Phil "Unabomber" Laak finished first.
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