Roland de Wolfe – Poker Player Profile/Bio
Roland de Wolfe has become one of the most well-known poker players in the world and is considered one of the best U.K players around. His live tournament winnings of $4.6 million, (at the time of writing), proves that he certainly has the skills to compete with anyone at the poker table. The Englishman also represents Full Tilt Poker after becoming a ‘Full Tilt Pro’ and is a regular in the cash games on the site.
Roland de Wolfe was born in London, England, on 30th November 1979. His first taste of poker came when he was only 12 years-old, playing card games with his school friends. Even as a youngster he was a gambler and would often play snooker and pool for money, as well as skip school to play in poker games. Throughout his teenage years he learned and mastered the game, winning a little money along the way. When he finished school he successfully completed a course in journalism. After a few brief jobs he found himself with a job writing for ‘Inside Edge’ which is a leading UK magazine all about poker. This was the dream job for the natural gambler and soon he was travelling all over the world reporting on tournaments for the magazine.
Despite being so bus travelling and writing for the magazine, de Wolfe still made time to play poker and became a regular in U.K casinos. He made frequent to the Victoria Casino and the Gutshot Club, which are both in London. In 2004 he made his first cash in an EPT event in a £500 Pot-Limit Hold’em side event where he finished 6th for £4,072. Next he made two very impressive showings at the Gutshot Poker Festival. He won the £150 Pot-Limit Hold’em event for £4,372 and finished runner-up in the £50 No-Limit Hold’em event for £1,500. These results bolstered de Wolfe’s confidence and soon he was playing regularly in internet poker cash games. Again, he found great success in these games and in just three days he won £15,000 online.
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All of this success was beginning to effect de Wolfe’s writing career however. Despite becoming editor of ‘Inside Edge’, he was losing his passion for writing. Instead he wanted to focus solely on playing poker and adding to his bankroll, and thats exactly what he did. He quit the magazine and began playing more online, as well at his local casinos.
Although he was having success in the online cash games, de Wolfe had to wait until 2005 before he had his first big break. This came when he entered the $10,000 WPT Grand Prix de Paris which he ended up winning for a massive payday of $574,419 and the title of WPT Champion. De Wolfe defeated Finnish poker player Juha Helppi heads-up for the victory which gained him a lot of exposure, as well as giving him the bankroll to comfortably be a full-time poker player. This win also earned him a seat in the 2006 WPT World Poker Championships at the Bellagio in Las Vegas worth $25,000. Yet again, de Wolfe was on his A-game and managed to make the final table despite 605 entrants. De Wolfe failed to take down his second WPT title however and busted in third-place for another big payday, this time it was $1,025,205!
Next it was the 2006 World Series of Poker for de Wolfe, his second appearance at the big stage after making one cash for $6,815 in 2005. This time he made two cashes, one of which was a final table. He ended up finishing third in the $2,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout event for $65,520. 2006 continued to be a great year for de Wolfe. He made a cash in the EPT Barcelona Open, won a London poker tournament, finished 4th in the UK Poker Open, and was invited to the PartyPoker.com World Open. The best was yet to come however. In October 2006, de Wolfe entered EPT Dublin and won the event which had 389 entrants. De Wolfe won $696,970 for his victory, and went down in the poker history books as the first player to win both an EPT and WPT title.
De Wolfe continued posting great live results as well as playing regularly on Full Tilt Poker as a ‘red pro’ after becoming a Full Tilt Pro. His biggest cash in 2007 was runner-up at the Paddy Power Irish Open which saw him pocket $433,773 after losing heads-up to Marty Smith. He also made six cashes at the WSOP including a final table appearance. He finished the year with live tournament winnings of $751,611.
The years 2008 and 2009 where quieter years on the live tournament circuit for de Wolfe and saw him take part in various poker television events, most notably Party Poker’s Premier League and World Open events. He also made appearances on Full Tilt Poker shows Late Night poker and Poker Million, but his greatest achievement of these two years was winning his first WSOP bracelet to complete the live ‘Triple Crown’ of winning an EPT, WPT and WSOP title. His WSOP victory came in the $ 5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event which he won for $246,616 after defeating a final table which included Andy Black and Alex Kravchenko.
Roland de Wolfe continues to travel the live tournament circuit and is a regular online in the Full Tilt Poker cash games. If you don’t already have an account there, read our Full Tilt Poker review first.
