
Poker Players
Poker Tips
How to Play Poker Basics
Poker Hands
Poker Terms
Poker Tells
Free Poker Games Online
Texas Holdem Rules
Texas Hold'em Games
Omaha Poker Scooping
Poker Tournaments
World Poker Tour
WSOP
Poker Stats
PokerTracker
Sharkscope
Calculatem
ThePokerDb
Official Poker Rankings
Site Map |
Anyone who has spent a
significant amount of time in card rooms will recognize Warren Karp. Having worked in the poker industry as a tournament director,
writer and professional player, Karp has built a solid reputation among his peers.
Warren Karp became fascinated with poker at age 16 while living in upstate New York. He would sit behind his father while he played,
closely watching and learning the game. Karp says that it was the camaraderie he observed at the tables that originally drew him in.
Like most amateurs, he started out playing every hand and continuously either got lucky or went broke. After breaking his bad habits,
Karp decided it was time to take his first trip to Las Vegas, which he describes as “a dream.” Once off the plane, he went straight to
the Stardust, where he was amazed and intimidated by the size of the poker room and the variety of games being spread. Up until that
point, Karp had only played seven-card stud and had never seen more than two tables in one room. In addition to the foreign games of Hold’em, Omaha and Lowball, Karp says he was overwhelmed by the stacks of chips in front of each player, never having seen poker being
played for these kinds of stakes. Despite his intimidation, Karp bought in $50 to a $1-$5 stud game and booked a win.
Feeling
comfortable after his score in Las Vegas, Karp and his father drove to Los Angeles, a city he describes as "400 miles of county
connected by 7-Elevens." They headed to the Bicycle Casino, where Karp felt even more intimidated by the fast-paced, massive room.
It didn’t take him long to get comfortable in a Stud game, and it was there where he first learned Texas Hold’em and Omaha. After that
trip, Karp was hooked and couldn’t wait to get home to New York to tell his buddies about his adventure. More trips followed until he
eventually made the move out west to pursue his career in the poker industry.

Windows - Mac
In 2002, Karp took a job as tournament director at Larry Flint’s Hustler Casino in Los Angeles, where he ran the largest ever buy-in
Seven-Card Stud event at that time. In 2003, he moved to Las Vegas to join the team at Binion’s Horseshoe Casino and helped run the
World Series of Poker in 2003 and 2004. Karp soon became the tournament director for the International Poker Federation, an
organization that aims to unify the worldwide poker community by establishing fair rules and running well staffed events. In 2004,
Karp ran two events in Copenhagen and Deauville, France for the
European Poker Tour. He travelled to St. Maarten, Costa Rica and the
Bahamas in 2005 when he became tournament director for the World Poker Showdown.
Always eager to be an ambassador to new players, Karp wrote countless columns for Card Player Magazine geared towards beginners. While
working as a columnist for Card Player, he says that players would approach him at the tables and talk about their games with him as
if they knew him, which Karp attributes to his conversational writing style. Although he enjoyed talking with and mentoring players,
he felt there was a better time and place to talk strategy. It was then that Karp started his website,
Pokermd.com, where he could tell stories, share experiences, and answer strategy
questions from players in an open forum. He has said “Poker has been very good to be and I’ve always wanted to give back to the industry.”
In addition to working in the poker industry, Karp has built an impressive resume as a player. Although his first tournament cash was
in 1997, it was in 2000 that Karp exploded as a player, cashing in 14 events. At the Legends of Poker that year, he cashed four times,
including a 2nd place finish in a $300 Limit Hold’em event, good for over $30,000. Karp has had success in several World Series of
Poker and World Poker Tour events, including a 70th place finish in the 2007 WSOP Championship where he took home over $130,000.
Perhaps most impressive, Karp has consistently cashed in a wide variety of games, proving he is an excellent all-around poker player.
Karp continues to work hard to make new players feel comfortable at the tables, always taking the opportunity to talk and write about
how friendly the poker community can be and how helpful casino staff and floor people are. He has appeared in the instructional DVD
series “Poker Insight” as a moderator in round table strategy discussions with fellow professionals
TJ Cloutier,
Greg Raymer,
Men Nguyen,
Barry Greenstein,
Ted Forrest, Tom Franklin and James Worth. Karp prides himself
in always looking to improve his game, saying "I’m better than I was yesterday and not as good as I hope to be tomorrow."
He is married with one child, and resides in Lake Forest, California.
|