Chad Brown
Chad Brown did not start out setting his sights on playing poker professionally. In fact, he was far from that – what he wanted was not in the casinos, but in television and film. Though Brown was born in Manhattan, he is a Bronx native, having been raised
there since childhood and having stayed there until he moved to California in the nineties. True to his New York roots, he had aspirations of becoming an actor, which was why he moved to Hollywood to try and seek a future in showbusiness. He did succeed in achieving minor roles and a few television gigs here and there, but these days he is more known for his poker playing ways.
His poker playing began when he was still trying to break into showbusiness. He would play poker in order to make some money to support himself and to pay for his needs. Soon after moving to California, though, he made more money out of playing poker than out of doing the projects that he got assigned on, considering most of them were minor roles or momentary television hosting gigs. He started playing the game seriously in 1993, and it was the first time he won ITM in the World Series of Poker’s Limit Hold’em event. He would go on to place at several other poker tournaments, including the World Poker Tour and Pokerstars’ European Poker Tour. While he has not won a bracelet from the WSOP, he has made twenty-seven money finishes throughout his poker playing career so far, and today he has made over $2,600,000 all in all just for the live tournaments. When he is not playing poker, he is hosting a television show that features poker, the Ultimate Poker Challenge. He is also an avid baseball fan, and an enthusiast who plays. Playing poker is a family affair as well – Brown is the husband of another renowned poker player, the young French-American player Vanessa Rousso.