Jon Friedberg: A Master's Degree & WSOP Bracelet Holder

Jon Friedberg was in college when he fell in love with the game of poker. But from his college days until he ventured into the corporate world, he was merely playing poker as a hobby. During those times, he was concentrated on making a career as a businessman.

Born on August 2, 1974 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Jon Friedberg spent his high school years at the Episcopal High School in Texas, where he graduated in 1992. In college, he moved to Tucson, Arizona and studied finance at the University of Arizona. It was during this time that he learned how to play such poker games as Stud, Omaha, and Hold'em. He used to frequent Indian casinos in Arizona when he was a sophomore in college.

After graduating from college, Jon Friedberg worked as a financial analyst at Petco in San Diego, California. He was very serious about his career but then, he made sure that he could still play poker during his free time. Poker did not become a hindrance to his profession as he went on to obtain a Master's degree in Business Administration at Pepperdine University's Graduate School of Business, which is located in Malibu, California.

Jon Friedberg worked for other companies, too, but in 2001, he and his friend Matt Bell decided to establish the company Reactrix Systems Inc. For three years, Jon Friedberg had been one of the major sources of the company's success. As its co-founder, he was able to help the company generate a profit of more than US$12,000,000.

However, there came a time when Jon Friedberg started to feel that he wanted to take a break from being a businessman. In 2004, he came to a decision that he wanted to pursue his dream of traveling around the world and becoming a professional poker player. He now simply serves as a member of the board of directors of Reactrix in order to have time to travel and to play poker.

It was in 2006 when this professional poker player experienced his first real success with a World Series of Poker bracelet. He placed first in the No-Limit Hold'em event and successfully defeated two thousand eight hundred ninety professional poker players. He won US$526,185. Professional poker player John Phan was the last one that Jon Friedberg defeated, which made the former a runner-up.

Because of the success of this professional poker player, he gets to be invited to host various poker events and tournaments. In January 2007, he was the co-host of "The Circuit," which is a radio show aired by Card Player on the Internet. Soon thereafter, this professional poker player was asked to host his very own poker show titled "Stacking Chips."

So, what does this professional poker player do when he is not playing poker or when he is not thinking about business? Well, he travels with his friends and his family. It surely does seem like this professional poker player is having a great time of his life. Well, he surely deserves to have a great life.