Sammy Farha

Sammy Farha was born in Beirut, Lebanon, where he showed an early talent for games of skill and chance. As a teen-ager, he excelled at Pac-Man, pinball, and pool, and he learned to make money on all three. He once played a single game of Pac-Man for $5,000, and his skill at pinball garnered him the cover of a Lebanese magazine.

Sammy Farha moved to the U.S.A. after civil war broke out in Lebanon when he was in his teens. After settling in Wichita, Kansas in 1977 he attended the University of Kansas. He graduated with a degree in business administration and moved to Houston, Texas to work with his brother. Farha first played a game of poker a year after moving to Houston, and won several thousand dollars. He quit his job in 1990 to play poker full time.

Most people became familiar with Sammy Farha after his great showing in the 2003 World Series where he finished 2nd only to Chris Moneymaker. Originally from Lebanon, Mr. Farha is now lives in Houston, TX. He won the Pot-Limit Omaha championship at the World Series of Poker in 1996, and also finished third in that same event in 2002. As of 2006, his total winnings exceed $2,000,000 in tournament poker, although he tends to primarily play in high stakes Omaha cash games.

It has been alleged on the World Series of Poker that Farha does not smoke, but he has been seen smoking on several occasions. Due to rules prohibiting smoking in poker rooms, he can frequently be seen with a "lucky" cigarette in his mouth. He is superstitious and if he takes a bad beat he will sometimes change cigarettes. One time, after winning a series of pots, he said, "I'm so hot, my cigarette's going to light!"

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