Allen Cunningham

Unassuming poker player Allen Cunningham only gets noticed when he wins, and he wins a lot. Voted by his peers as the Best All Around Player Under 35, and a world champion in 7 Card Stud, Allen Cunningham can lose himself very easily in the crowd. He can slip in and out of poker rooms of casinos without anyone giving him a second glance. When you sit next to him for a game of seven card stud you might, however, do a double take at his familiar face. Pinch yourself. For you would be sitting next to a legend.

Allen Cunningham does not carry his laurels on his lapels. In these days of self-promotion, where even single-event champs strut around like a cock with their plumage on full display, Allen appears out of place. This publicity-shy champion of poker is one of those rare breed of individuals who actually shirk at any celebrity status. Hunt the entire web – I am sure you won’t find a single interview given by him to any T.V. channel or internet website (other than those single-sentence bytes). Heck, you wouldn’t find any website that has his name. He is one of the many professional poker players onboard at Full Tilt Poker.)

Perhaps this personality trait has to do with his upbringing. Born in 1977 in the city of Riverside, California, Allen grew up amidst orange groves and the botanic gardens of the University of California. His parents would take him to the Fairmount Park, where young Allen would spend hours at the pond. During his formative years, he used to see lots of buildings being razed down and new ones being constructed in his multi-ethnic city. Perhaps this motivated Allen to take up the course of civil engineering at the UCLA.

It was while penciling those designs on the drawing board that he first became attracted to gambling. At the age of 18, when he first sauntered into the Indian casinos that his friends used to frequent, he did not have any idea about the game. He started off casually, and to his surprise, began winning game after game. The initial trickle of sub-dollars soon grew into a flood of mega-bucks, so much so that Allen made up his mind to give up civil engineering to become a full-time poker player. And, thus, Allen the professional poker player was born.

Allen’s rise to stardom in the initial phases was full of struggle. He got his first chance to be recognized as a man to be reckoned with in 1998, when he finished 25th in a $2,000 Hold’em Pot Limit Tournament. Las Vegas had finally called his name. The next year, 1999, saw Allen Cunningham improving his position to 15th in the $2,500 WSOP Omaha 8 or Better event. 2000 saw him catapulted to 2nd position at the $5,000 WSOP Omaha high-low split, taking home a cool $113,850.

It was since 2001 that Allen has really been lolling in the riches. In the month of May, Allen came out tops in the WSOP $5,000 Seven Card Stud event with a win of $201,760. This was followed by another first in the Legends of Poker played in Los Angeles; the event was a $500 Hold’em Omaha Hi-Lo 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo. The next month, in September 2001, Allen came second in the Four Queens Poker Classic played in Las Vegas, playing in the $5,000 no limit Hold’em Championship event. In 2002, Allen’s high point was a first rank in the WSOP $5,000 Deuce to Seven No-Limit event, where he pocketed $160,200. The WPT Euro Finals played in Paris in 2003 saw his rank pegged at 3rd position for the Euro 10,000 No limit Hold’em event. The WPT Bellagio Five-Star World Poker Classic championship got him the 13th rank for the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em event. Atlantic City proved lucky for this young lad, when he won the 2003 US Poker Championship in the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event in that city. When he bagged the booty of $111,494 at the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em event in the 2004 Bellagio Five-Star WPC/WPT Championship, he must have felt on top of the world!

Till date, Allen Cunningham has already taken cash home in 13 WSOP events and 6 WPT events, and has three gold bracelets to his credit. In 2005, he has already collected his first million dollars, with a record win at the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event. Allen is young, and there is a lot of energy in this boy from Riverside. This site wishes him all the best for his future career. As regards his unassuming nature, may his tribe increase!