At the same time he also had a nose job done to look less foreign. Antonio the magician sounded more mystical than Amir the magician. Īt the age of 19, he changed his name to Antonio, which was adopted from a desire to be a magician. He then went briefly to jail after he got caught by the police selling marijuana. He graduated from Del Mar High School in 1997.
When he was nine years old, his family moved to San Jose, California. Early life Įsfandiari was born in Tehran, Iran. In 2012, he authored The Magician's Secrets for Winning Tournaments on Insta Poker, a poker strategy game available for iOS. Esfandiari was ranked number one for all-time tournament poker winnings, until Daniel Negreanu took this title by finishing 2nd in the ' Big One For One Drop 2014'. By winning the event, Esfandiari won the second largest single payout in tournament poker history at $18,346,673. In addition to appearing on several poker television shows, he has won two World Poker Tour (WPT) championships and three World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets in his career, including the ' Big One for One Drop' in 2012, a $1,000,000 buy-in tournament benefiting the One Drop Foundation. Esfandiari was the face of the now-defunct poker site,. Information accurate as of 8 August 2021.Īntonio 'The Magician' Esfandiari ( Persian: امیر اسفندیاری born December 8, 1978, as Amir Esfandiary), is a professional poker player and former professional magician, known for his elaborate chip tricks.
