Poker is about observing skills, and knowing your enemies is the key to victory. This is a direct quote from Thomas Cloutier.
Who is Thomas Cloutier, you might ask? Thomas Cloutier is an American professional poker player.
Although in his eighties, Thomas Cloutier is regarded as one of the legends of the poker world. He is often referred to as TJ Cloutier.
Legendary career
Few players dare to say they can stay as competitive as TJ Cloutier for as long.
As one of the most senior poker players in major tournaments, Cloutier's career dates back to the 1950s, and over the course of his long career, he saw and did almost everything you could imagine in poker.
To date, Cloutier has won more than 60 major tournaments.
It is estimated that in his brilliant poker career, he has won more than 10 million knives. Unlike most top poker pros, Cloutier has never won more than six figures in a single game, and his earnings are the result of a long career.
Cloutier has been in the top 5 of the WSOP main event four times, two of which were runners-up, losing to Bill Smith in 1985 and Chris Ferguson in 2000. It is the only player to have finished second in the WSOP Main Event twice.
In addition to the main event, Cloutier has 6 WSOP gold bracelets that include all three versions of Omaha events offered in the series:
●High-Low
●Pot-Limit
●Omaha High
He is also the only player to achieve this achievement. Cloutier's remaining WSOP bracelets come from:
●Pot Limit Hold’em (1994)
●Seven Card Razz (2004)
●No Limit Hold’em (2005)
It is worth mentioning that his WSOP bonus accounts for about half of his total prize money, totaling 4.7 million knives. That makes him one of the most profitable people in the history of the WSOP series. In recognition of his achievements in the series, TJ Cloutier was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2006.
In 1998 and 2002 he was named "Player of the Year" by Card Player Magazine.
He has won over $100,000 in 22 different competitions. Imagine this: in 22 different poker tournaments, you get six-figure prizes, seven of which exceed $250,000.
Perhaps even more impressive was Cloutier's performance in the early '90s.
Going back to the poker craze, there were only three $10,000 buy-in events a year (and now a few per month). One of the Big Three is held annually at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, known as "Diamond Jim Brady," which Cloutier won for three consecutive years from 1990-1992.
Another of the Big Three is the Amarillo Slim Poker Super Bowl at Caesars Palace. Cloutier won the event in 1990 (Stu Ungar finished third), meaning cloutier won two of the three biggest races of the year.
Legendary anecdotes
In the poker room, J9 is also known as "TJ Cloutier". The nickname came after Cleuter played a flash game in Dallas. It is said that he hit the flush three times in a row when he got the J9. The story of this man's luck was spread, and the nickname was passed down. Mike Sexton later cited the term in his commentary during the WSOP Tour, allowing it to spread further.
Obsessed with dice into financial difficulties, pawn gold bracelets
For younger gamers, the story of TJ Cloutier's addiction to dice games is as famous as his poker skills. There are countless rumors, sightings, and stories about Cloutier's addiction to dice, from his $5 under Binion's to thousands of knives on the table. The rumors of his bankruptcy due to dice never stopped.
The poker legend was labeled a "fallen" in his later years.
An anonymous craps dealer posted on the twoplustwo forum that Cloutier usually bets for "$500."
Ironically, Cloutier once told CardPlayer.com: "He can't live in Las Vegas, rolling the dice is an 'addictive game,' and if I live here, who knows what will happen?" This means that he himself understands that this is a bad habit, but only knows.
In March 2008, Cloutier spoke about the topic in an interview with Poker Road radio. He was asked if the huge losses in the dice game would have an impact on his life. Cloutier replied: "How can a man who won 11 million in poker and lost 3 million in the dice roll worry about what happened yesterday?"
This is a typical gambler's answer!
On January 24, 2010, a pawn shop in Plano, Texas, auctioned off a WSOP bracelet from Cloutier on Ebay. The bracelet was obtained by him in 2005 with a win in the WSOP $5000 No Limit Texas Hold'em, which was sold to The Cake poker for 4006 knives.
Cloutier said on the Hardcore Poker Show that while he didn't want to talk about how his bracelet got into the pawnshop, "he was short of money."
In recent years
Today, Cloutier has scaled back the number of times he competes in tournaments, sticking mainly to low-buy events at casinos near his home.
He still competes in WSOP events. He even competes in the $235 No Limit Texas Hold'em daily deep-brode at the Rio Hotel and Casino every day during the annual WSOP.
Perhaps to make up for his loss at the dice roll, or to balance the huge swings in poker tournaments, TJ Cloutier, based on his experience gaining from poker for more than 60 years, wrote a book called How to Win the Championship: Texas Hold'em Strategies at the Final Table and co-authored four books with Tom McEvoy. They are Tournament Match Practice, Texas Hold'em Championship, Omaha Championship and No Limit Poker Championship.
He also writes for Card Player Magazine.