Gabriel W. "Gabe" Kaplan (born March 31, 1945) is an American comedian, actor, poker commentator, and professional poker player.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He is best known for his role as Gabriel "Gabe" Kotter in the 1970s sitcom, Welcome Back, Kotter, but he has become more visible in recent years in relation to the popularity of poker, especially the "No-Limit Texas Hold-'Em" type, particularly as co-host and joint commentator, with A.J. Benza, on previous seasons of High Stakes Poker on GSN. Kaplan was replaced by fellow comedian and celebrity poker player Norm Macdonald for the show's seventh season.

As a boy, Kaplan had aspirations of being a Major League Baseball player. However, he was unable to make the roster of a minor league team and decided to pursue other interests. He began working as a bellman at a hotel in Lakewood, New Jersey. Touring comedians would sometimes perform at the hotel, and Kaplan began to work toward his own career as a stand-up comedian.

Kaplan's comedy was successful, and he toured the country with his act based on his childhood experiences in Brooklyn. He appeared five times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from May 1973 to December 1974. During this period he also recorded the comedy album Holes and Mello-Rolls, which included long routines about his high-school days, among other topics; the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, whose central characters he helped Eric Cohen and Alan Sacks create and whose core format he helped them to develop, was in part based on his comedy act. In the sitcom, Kaplan played Gabe Kotter, who returns as a teacher to the dysfunctional high school where he had himself been a student. The series ran from 1975 to 1979.

Thuận B. "Scotty" Nguyễn (born October 28, 1962) is a Vietnamese American professional poker player who is a five-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, most notably as the winner of the 1998 World Series of Poker Main Event and the 2008 WSOP $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship. He is the first and currently only player to win both the WSOP Main Event and $50,000 Players' Championship.

Scotty Nguyen was born in Nha Trang, Vietnam, and came to the United States at the age of fourteen. He was expelled from school for spending too much time in underground poker games. Nguyen attended dealer school at the age of 21 and was employed at Harrah’s poker room. There he made about $150 a night and lost most of it playing $3–$6 stud. He described himself as a "fish" but wanted to gamble regardless.

His luck changed in 1985 when he was invited to Lake Tahoe to deal in a no-limit Hold’em tournament. He dealt all day and played cash games all night with the meager bankroll he brought with him. He built his bankroll to $7,000 and felt he was invincible. He returned to Las Vegas and gambled his bankroll up to $1,000,000. His name spread around Vegas and before he knew it he was playing poker with Johnny Chan, Puggy Pearson, and David Grey. He purchased a Chevrolet Camaro for $17,000, a Corvette for $21,000 and a condominium for $60,000 all in cash. He lived in Caesars Palace and was winning $50,000 to $100,000 a night.

Eliahu Ilan Elezra (Hebrew: אלי אלעזרא‎; born November 24, 1960 in Jerusalem) is an Israeli professional poker player and a businessman, now living in Las Vegas, Nevada.

While he was in Israel, Elezra was a lieutenant in the Golani Brigade. He was bedridden by a leg injury; during this time he began playing poker. Before moving to Las Vegas, Elezra spent several years working in Alaska, prior to starting his career as a professional poker player.

Since moving to America, Elezra has made numerous money finishes in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Omaha, Texas Hold 'em and Draw events.

In July 2004, Elezra won the World Poker Tour (WPT) $10,000 no limit hold'em event at the 2004 Mirage Poker Showdown, where he won $1,024,574.

Elezra has played in "The Big Game" in Vegas for many years. He appeared in the second and third seasons of the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament. He played in seasons 1-6 of GSN series High Stakes Poker.

According to an episode of the GSN show High Stakes Poker that aired in 2006, Elezra donated $50,000 to complete a gym for his former military unit.

Doyle F. Brunson (born August 10, 1933) is an American professional poker player who has played professionally for over 50 years. He is the first two-time World Series of Poker main event champion to win consecutively, a Poker Hall of Fame inductee, and the author of several books on poker.

Brunson is the first player to earn $1 million in poker tournaments and has won ten World Series of Poker bracelets throughout his career, tied with Johnny Chan for second all-time, one behind Phil Hellmuth's eleven. He is also one of only four players to have won the Main Event at the World Series of Poker multiple times, which he did in 1976 and 1977. He is also one of only two players, along with Bill Boyd, to have won bracelets at the WSOP in four consecutive years. In addition, he is the first of five players to win both the WSOP Main Event and a World Poker Tour title. In January 2006, Bluff Magazine voted Brunson the #1 most influential force in the world of poker.

Brunson was born in Longworth, Fisher County, Texas, a town with a population of approximately 100, and was one of three children. Because of Longworth's small size, Brunson frequently ran long distances to other towns, and became a promising athlete. He was part of the All-State Texas basketball team, and practiced the one-mile run to keep in shape in the off-season. Although he was more interested in basketball than running, he entered the 1950 Texas Interscholastic Track Meet and won the one-mile event with a time of 4:43. Despite receiving offers from many colleges, he attended Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, because it was close to his home.

Todd Alan Brunson (born August 7, 1969) is an American professional poker player and the son of poker legend Doyle Brunson. Although Brunson's father Doyle is now a poker playing legend, Brunson did not learn the game when he was young. It was not until he was studying law at Texas Tech University that he learned on his own how to play. Before his senior year, he dropped out of school to go pro.

Most of his years as a poker player have been spent playing cash games. He's a familiar face along with his father at the Bellagio in some of their biggest cash games. In the past few years he's got into more tournament play.

Todd won a bracelet in Omaha High Low at the 2005 World Series of Poker, making the Brunsons the first father-son combination to each win bracelets at the World Series. Todd Brunson also contributed to his father's book, Super System 2 (the 2005 sequel to Doyle Brunson's poker book Super/System), writing the Seven Card Stud High Low Eight or Better section.

His nickname "Darkhorse" comes from a tournament he played early in his career, where he was reckoned to be a huge underdog, but outlasted the likes of Chip Reese.