Cao Rui
An illustration depicting Cao Rui
Emperor of Cao Wei
Born	204[1] or 205[2]
Died	January 22, 239 (aged 35)
Predecessor	Cao Pi
Successor	Cao Fang
Names
Simplified Chinese	曹叡
Traditional Chinese	曹叡
Pinyin	Cáo Rùi
Wade-Giles	Ts'ao Jui
Style name	Yuanzhong (元仲)
Posthumous name	Emperor Ming (明帝)
Temple name	Liezu (烈祖)

Cao Rui (204 or 205 – 22 January 239^[3]), formally known as Emperor Ming of Wei, was the second emperor of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. He was a son of Cao Wei's first emperor Cao Pi according to Liu Song dynasty historian, Pei Songzhi, but was a son of Yuan Xi according to modern historian, Lu Bi, and Qing dynasty scholar, Mou Guangsheng. His biological issue remains controversial.

Cao Rui's reign was viewed in many different ways throughout Chinese history. He was an emperor who was known to have been a strong military strategist and a good leader astute in commissioning capable officials. At the same time, he was personally a supporter of arts. He devoted much resources into building palaces and ancestral temples, and his reign saw the stalemate between his empire, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu become more entrenched. His building projects and his desire to have many concubines (who numbered in the thousands) greatly exhausted the imperial treasury. On his deathbed, he entrusted his son Cao Fang to the regency of Cao Shuang and Sima Yi -- a fatal mistake for his clan, as Cao Shuang monopolized power and governed incompetently, eventually drawing a violent reaction from Sima, who overthrew him in a coup d'etat (Incident at Gaoping Tombs) and became in control of the Cao Wei government, eventually allowing his grandson Sima Yan to usurp the Wei throne.

Family background[link]

When Cao Rui was born (likely in 204), his grandfather Cao Cao was the paramount warlord of Han Dynasty, who had rendered Emperor Xian of Han a mere figurehead. His father Cao Pi was Cao Cao's oldest surviving son and the heir apparent. His mother Lady Zhen had been the wife of Yuan Shao's son Yuan Xi, but when she was seized by Cao Cao's army in 204, Cao Pi forced her to marry him, and she gave birth to Cao Rui only eight months after the wedding—leading to theories that Cao Rui was actually biologically Yuan Xi's son and not Cao Pi's. This eventually was used to great advantage by Cao Pi's concubine Guo Nüwang to create tension between Cao Pi and Lady Zhen. Cao Pi, after his father's death in 220, forced Emperor Xian to yield the throne to him and established Cao Wei. Lady Zhen was not allowed to accompany him to the new capital Luoyang, and in 221 he forced her to commit suicide.

Because of what happened to Lady Zhen and Cao Rui's unclear origin, even though Cao Rui was the oldest of Cao Pi's sons, he was not created crown prince early in his father's reign, but was only created the Prince of Pingyuan in 222. Sometime during his years as the Prince of Pingyuan, he married a daughter of an aristocrat, Lady Yu, as his wife and princess. He apparently had a cordial relationship with Lady Guo, who was created empress (also in 222), and as she was sonless, his status as heir apparent was not seriously challenged. It is said that any thoughts that Cao Pi had at not making him heir was dissipated by a hunt; during that hunt, Cao Pi and Cao Rui had encountered a mother deer and a young deer. Cao Pi killed the mother deer with an arrow, and then ordered Cao Rui to kill the young deer. Cao Rui wept and said, "Your imperial majesty had already killed the mother, and I do not have the heart to kill the son as well." Cao Pi dropped his bow and arrows and became mournful.

In 226, when Cao Pi became ill, he finally created Cao Rui crown prince. He died soon thereafter, and Cao Rui became emperor at the age of 21.

As emperor[link]

Cao Rui's reign was a paradoxical one in many ways. He was clearly intelligent and capable, and yet never fulfilled his potential in his governance of the country or in his military campaigns. He showed great compassion at times, and yet was capable of great cruelty. He carried out many acts that were beneficial for the empire and yet at least as many that were hurtful. Despite his uncle Cao Zhi's successive petitions, however, he continued the severe prohibitions against princes' holding of offices that his father Cao Pi had put in place, and this was commonly viewed by traditional historians as an eventual factor in the downfall of Cao Wei, as the Simas took power after Cao Rui's death without the imperial princes having any real ability to oppose them.

Treatment of officials[link]

Cao Rui, a young adult when he became emperor, quickly showed a knack for finding capable officials to empower while maintaining steady control over them. His father had appointed three regents for him—his distant cousin Cao Zhen, the steady administrator Chen Qun, and the shrewd strategist Sima Yi. Once Cao Rui became emperor, however, he, while knowing the value of the advice of these senior officials, chose perhaps the best path to deal with them: honoring them and making them regional governors with full authority in the provinces they governed. By doing this, he showed that he was his own man while at the same time continued to receive the wisdom of their advice.

Throughout Cao Rui's reign, he showed great diligence in seeking out advice from multiple officials, rather than concentrating on listening to several, before making important decisions. He was generally cautious and not willing to take risks, but at the same time was therefore able to avoid major disasters for his empire.

Campaigns against Shu Han[link]

One immediate threat that Cao Rui had to deal with after he became emperor were attacks from Shu Han's regent, Zhuge Liang. Zhuge had, after the death of Shu Han's founding emperor, Liu Bei, initially taken a passive posture militarily with regard to the Shu Han-Cao Wei border, while reestablishing an alliance with Sun Quan's Eastern Wu, in order to rest the people and the troops. In 227, he, under the theory that Shu Han was naturally a weaker state than Cao Wei and, if it had just sat and done nothing, would eventually be swallowed up by Cao Wei anyway, started a series of five campaigns north.

During these campaigns, Cao Rui's response generally was to head to the metropolitan Chang'an -- a politically important city that Wei could not afford to lose—and then commissioning generals to the frontlines to ward off Zhuge's attacks. This strategy had the effect of boosting the morale of the troops and shortening the communication line. Being fairly quickly updated as to the events at the frontlines, Cao Rui could also keep the central empire under his watch. At least partly because of Cao Rui's precise prediction on Zhuge's plan, Zhuge's campaigns ended up futile, and after his death in 234, Zhuge's plan was largely abandoned by his successors Jiang Wan and Fei Yi. That did not mean that there was peace on the borders with Shu Han, however, as nearly yearly there were battles between the two states. However, there would be no major confrontations on the scale of Zhuge's campaigns for the rest of Cao Rui's reign.

Campaigns against Eastern Wu[link]

During Cao Rui's reigns, there were also many battles waged against the other rival empire, Eastern Wu. The very first came only two months after Cao Rui had become emperor in 226. It was during that campaign that Cao Rui showed his acumen for judging a situation correctly—believing that by the time that reinforcements could be sent, Eastern Wu's monarch Sun Quan would have already withdrawn, and therefore sending reinforcements was pointless. Throughout his reign, he would generally take a similar stance during campaigns against Eastern Wu as he did with Shu Han — head east personally to be close to the theater of the war, while remaining some distance away from the frontlines, which also proved to be effective. He also entrusted the southeastern border to the capable Man Chong, and Man's stewardship averted many disasters.

Cao Rui's greatest military loss came in 228, when the Eastern Wu general Zhou Fang tricked Cao Rui's distant cousin and regional governor Cao Xiu into believing that he was ready to surrender his troops to Cao Wei, while instead laying a trap for Cao Xiu. Instead of realizing that it was indeed a trap, Cao Rui enthusiastically approved Cao Xiu's plan, and this led to a major military disaster, but Cao Xiu's forces were saved by Jia Kui from total annihilation.

Another serious crisis posed by Eastern Wu occurred in 234, when Eastern Wu, in a semi-coordinated effort with Shu Han, launched an attack against Cao Wei simultaneously with Zhuge Liang's Northern Expeditions. At the time, many frontline officials were on vacation visiting families, so Man Zhong requested Cao Rui to call them back to fight Sun Quan. Cao Rui refused to cancel his subordinates' vacation, and ordered Man to focus on the defense. Cao Rui then personally led the royal army as reinforcement, and acted as an effective coordinator of the various forces that Cao Wei had on Eastern Wu's borders, and Eastern Wu was unable to make substantial gains.

Campaigns against Liaodong[link]

The only real military gain for Cao Wei during Cao Rui's reign was the end of the Gongsun clan's hold on Liaodong (modern central and eastern Liaoning), which was started by Gongsun Du in 190. In 228, Gongsun Du's grandson Gongsun Yuan deposed his uncle Gongsun Gong in a coup and asked for an official commission from Cao Rui. Acting against Liu Ye (劉曄)'s advice to attack the Gongsuns while there was dissension within, Cao Rui instead gave Gongsun Yuan an official commission as governor of Liaodong Commandery.

In 232, Gongsun Yuan's repeated communicated with and sales of horses to Eastern Wu angered Cao Rui, who ordered his generals Tian Yu and Wang Xiong (王雄) to attack Liaodong against Jiang Ji (蔣濟)'s advice; the attacks were not successful, although Tian was able to intercept the Eastern Wu horse-buying fleet and destroy it. After the incident, although Gongsun formally maintained vassalage to Cao Wei, the relationship was damaged.

The next year saw that relationship would be somewhat improve. Gongsun, apprehensive of another attack from Cao Wei, sent ambassadors to Eastern Wu to formally submit to its emperor Sun Quan. Sun was so pleased that he immediately created Gongsun the Prince of Yan and granted him the nine bestowments, which were typically reserved for officials so powerful that the bestowments were typically viewed as a sign that the emperor was about to abdicate to them. However, Gongsun realized later that Eastern Wu would be of little help in an expedition against him. He betrayed Eastern Wu, slaughtered Sun's ambassadors as they arrived in Liaodong, and seized their troops. In response, Cao Rui created Gongsun the Duke of Lelang. (Part of the Eastern Wu troops were able to escape and eventually returned home with the assistance of Goguryeo, a rival of the Gongsuns.)

In 237, Cao Rui once again considered attacking Liaodong, angered by reports that Gongsun had repeatedly defamed him. He commissioned Guanqiu Jian to prepare for an attack, and then ordered Gongsun to come to Luoyang for an official visit. Gongsun refused and instead declared independence. Guanqiu attacked him, but was stopped by torrential rains. Gongsun then declared himself the Prince of Yan and entered into alliances with the Xianbei tribes to harass Cao Wei's borders.

The following year, Cao Rui sent Sima Yi with 40,000 men to attack Liaodong. Upon hearing this, Gongsun again requested aid from Eastern Wu. Sun, angry at Gongsun's previous betrayal, pretended to agree, but did not send Gongsun any actual help. Although Sima's expeditory force was also initially halted by torrential rains as Guanqiu's was, Sima waited out the rains and eventually surrounded Gongsun's capital of Xiangping (襄平, in modern Liaoyang, Liaoning), starving Gongsun's troops. After nearly three months of siege, Xiangping fell, and Gongsun fled, but was captured and executed by Sima. Liaodong became part of Cao Wei's domain.

Building projects and collection of concubines[link]

Almost immediately after Cao Rui ascended the throne, he started out large scale palace and temple-building projects. Part of it was to be expected—the Luoyang palaces had been remnants of the ones not destroyed by Dong Zhuo, and the temples were needed for the cults of his ancestors. However, he went beyond the minimally required, and continued to build temples and palaces throughout the rest of his reign, severely draining the imperial treasury. While he occasionally halted projects at the officials' behest, the projects would restart after brief breaks. He not only built palaces in Luoyang, but also built a palace in Xuchang. In 237, he further moved many of the magnificent statues and monuments that were commissioned by Emperor Wu of Han from Chang'an to Luoyang, costing great expenses and lives. He further built gigantic bronze statues of his own and placed them on a man-made hill inside his palace, surrounded by rare trees and plants and populated by rare animals.

Cao Rui was also increasing his collection of women, as his concubines and ladies in waiting numbered thousands. His palace-building projects might have been with intent to house them. In 237, he even ordered that beautiful married women all be formally seized unless their husbands were able to ransom them, and that they would be married to soldiers instead—but that the most beautiful among them would become his concubines. Despite some officials' protestations, this decree was apparently carried out, much to the distress of his people.

Marriages, succession issues and death[link]

When Cao Rui became emperor, it was commonly expected that his wife, Princess Yu, would be created empress, but she was not. Rather, he created a favorite concubine, Consort Mao, empress in 227. Princess Yu was exiled back to their original palace. He loved Empress Mao dearly, and a number of her relatives, including her father and brother, became honored officials (but without actual powers).

Despite his collection of women, however, Cao Rui was without any son who survived infancy. He adopted two sons to be his own -- Cao Fang and Cao Xun, whom he created princes in 235. (It is usually accepted that they were sons of his cousins, although the exact parentage is not clear.) In 237, Cao Rui took the unprecedented (and unrepeated in Chinese history) action of setting his own temple name of Liezu and ordering that his temple, in the future, never to be torn down. (Based on Confucian regulations, except for the founder of the dynasty, rulers' temples would be destroyed after six generations.) He carried out these actions apparently in apprehension that he would be given an unflattering temple name (or none at all) and that his temple would eventually be destroyed, due to his lack of biological issue and unclear origin.

By 237, Cao Rui's favorite was no longer Empress Mao, but Consort Guo. Once, when Cao Rui was attending a feast hosted by Consort Guo, Consort Guo requested that Empress Mao be invited to join as well, but Cao Rui refused and further ordered that no news about the feast is to be given to Empess Mao. However, the news leaked, and Empress Mao talked about the feast with him anyway. He became exceedingly angry, and killed a number of his attendants whom he suspected of leaking the news to Empress Mao, and, inexplicably, ordered Empress Mao to commit suicide, even though she was still buried with honors due an empress, and her family remained honored.

In 238, Cao Rui grew ill. He created Consort Guo empress in preparation of allowing her to become empress dowager after his death. He initially wanted to entrust his adopted son, Cao Fang the Prince of Qi, to his uncle Cao Yu (曹宇), to serve as the lead regent, along with Xiahou Xian (夏侯獻), Cao Shuang, Cao Zhao (曹肇), and Qin Lang (秦朗). However, his trusted officials Liu Fang (劉放) and Sun Zi (孫資) were unfriendly with Xiahou and Cao Zhao and were apprehensive about their becoming regents, and managed to persuade him to make Cao Shuang (with whom they were friendly) and Sima Yi regents instead. Cao Yu, Cao Zhao, and Qin were excluded from the regency. In spring of 239, Cao Rui created the seven-year-old Cao Fang crown prince, and died the same day of that creation. Cao Fang succeeded him as emperor.

Era names[link]

• Taihe (太和) 227–233
• Qinglong (青龍) 233–237
• Jingchu (景初) 237–239

Family[link]

• Father: Cao Pi or Yuan Xi^[4][5]

• Mother: Lady Zhen

• Spouses:
  • Empress Mao
  • Empress Guo
  • Concubine Yu

• Children:
  • Sons:
    • Cao Jiong (曹冏), instated as Prince of Qinghe in 226, died in the same year
    • Cao Mu (曹穆), instated as Prince of Fanyang in 228, died in 229
    • Cao Yin (曹殷) born in 231, died in 232, posthumously granted title Prince Ai of Anping
  • Daughters:
    • Cao Shu (曹淑), died in 232 posthumously instated as Princess Yi of Pingyuan
    • Princess Qichang (齊長公主), personal name unknown, married Li Tao (son of Li Feng), later married Ren Kai
  • Adopted children:
    • Cao Xun, born in 231, instated as Prince of Qin in 235, died in 244
    • Cao Fang, son of Cao Kai, instated as Prince of Qi in 235 and crown prince in 239, became third emperor of Cao Wei later

See also[link]

• List of people of the Three Kingdoms
• List of Chinese monarchs

References[link]

Patrik Antonius
Nickname(s)	PA, Black Lotus, The Finn
Residence	Helsinki, Finland
Born	(1980-12-13) 13 December 1980 (age 31) Helsinki, Finland
World Series of Poker
Bracelet(s)	None
Final table(s)	2
Money finish(es)	14[1]
Highest ITM Main Event finish	601st, 2010
World Poker Tour
Title(s)	None
Final table(s)	1
Money finish(es)	7
European Poker Tour
Title(s)	1
Final table(s)	2
Money finish(es)	2
Information accurate as of 30 October 2011.

Patrik Antonius (born 13 December 1980 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish professional poker player, former tennis player and coach, and model from Vantaa, Finland. He currently resides in Monte Carlo. Antonius was mentored by poker pro Marcel Lüske as a member of Luske's "Circle of Outlaws"^[2] and later advised by Jennifer Harman.^[3] Antonius is married to Maya Geller and has two children.^[4]

Tournament poker[link]

Antonius began making a name for himself on the poker tournament circuit with two finishes near the final table of a European Poker Tour (EPT) event and a World Poker Tour (WPT) event, 12th at the EPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, then 15th at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars event two months later, in early 2005. He went on to finish in the money in three events of the 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP). In September 2005 he made the European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event final table, finishing 3rd in Barcelona. The next month, Antonius won the EPT event in Baden bei Wien, taking home the €288,180 first prize when in the final hand his 8♠ 4♥ beat Gunnar Østebrød's Q♥ 9♣ on a board of 4♠ 7♠ 8♥ 3♣ 7♣. In December 2005 he finished the year 2nd in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas, Nevada, winning $1,046,470.

In July 2006 he placed 9th in the 143-player 8-handed World Series of Poker $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, taking home $205,920, his biggest cash that year. In 2007 World Series of Poker, Antonius entered numerous tournaments but he only cashed in the World Championship of Pot Limit Omaha event, placing third and winning $311,394, making that his ninth WSOP cash and increasing his WSOP earnings to a total of $569,964. Antonius has been featured three times on NBC's Poker After Dark. In his first appearance he finished as runner up, losing out to fellow poker professional Jennifer Harman, but his next attempt saw him defeat Brad Booth in heads-up play to take the victory. In his third appearance he was runner up again, this time to Johnny Chan. As of 2011^[update], Antonius' total live tournament winnings exceed $ 3,375,000.^[5] His 14 cashes at the WSOP account for $911,178 of those winnings.^[6]

Antonius was not able to enter the 2009 WSOP Main Event, as he was turned away when attempting to register along with hundreds of others due to a capacity field.^[7]

He also plays in some of the highest profile online tournaments, and in September 2008 he finished 2nd in the Full Tilt Poker $25,000 buy-in Heads-Up Pot Limit Omaha Championship, winning $320,000.

Antonius finished 9th in the 593-player 8-handed €10,400 2011 World Series of Poker Europe main event for a prize of €90,000.^[8]

Cash games[link]

Antonius is a heads-up specialist.^[9] He is a regular high stakes player online and one of the most successful having won millions of dollars.^[9] He has played on Full Tilt Poker under several nicknames, including Luigi66369, CryMeRiver9 and Finddagrind, but having become a member of "Team Full Tilt" he now plays under his real name.^[10] During his early career he also used screen names e.g. I_knockout_U, try_hrdr_fish and -ANTONIUS- on various other poker networks. Previously Antonius was one of a team of players associated with Martinspoker.com.

He is equally prolific in live cash games, and is a regular in the [Game (poker)|Big Game<], the high-stakes cash game at the Bellagio. Antonius appeared on the third to sixth seasons of GSN's High Stakes Poker. Patrik was involved, along with Sammy Farha, in the show's largest ever pot; it totaled $998,800. After a preflop raise and re-raise the flop came 6♦ 3♣ 9♦; Antonius held J♥ 9♥ for top pair and Farha held K♦ Q♦, giving him two over-cards and a flush draw. Sammy called Patrik's all-in raise instantly and the two agreed to run the turn and river four times. Though Sammy's hand was a slight favorite, Patrik won three of the four runs and collected $749,100.

In another sizable pot on High Stakes Poker, Patrik went up against Jamie Gold. Jamie had K♠ K♦ versus Patrik's A♠ J♦. Patrik raised to $4,000 preflop with Jamie reraising to $14,000, after declaring that his hole cards felt "like aces." The flop came out 3♠ Q♦ 10♥, giving Patrik an inside straight draw. Jamie bet $15,000 into a $30,800 pot, which Patrik called. The turn was the K♥, giving Patrik a straight and Jamie a set of kings. Patrik bet $45,000 into the pot, which Jamie reraised all in. Patrik immediately called making the pot worth $743,800. The players agreed to run the river three times. Despite being a 77-23 favorite, Patrik won only the last of the three times, as Jamie hit a full house on the first two. Even after losing two times as a favorite, Patrik remained calm and showed no emotion on his face. At the time, it was the largest pot ever on High Stakes Poker.

Antonius has since lost a pot of almost $600,000 to Tom Dwan on an episode of the Poker After Dark high stakes cash game. Tom straddled the hand to $1,200 and Patrik was first to act having pocket 10's, with which he raised. Tom reraised the hand with pocket kings, and Patrik called. The flop gave him a set of tens and he bet $27,000, which Tom called. The turn was a king, giving Tom a set of kings. Patrik bet $59,000 which led to Dwan going all-in for over $200,000, which Patrik called, making the pot almost $600,000. They ran it twice, Patrik losing both. It was the largest pot in the history of Poker After Dark.

Antonius was the first player to go up against Dwan in his "Million Dollar Challenge" on Full Tilt Poker (though not the first to accept the challenge). Dwan has challenged players to high-stakes no-limit hold 'em or pot-limit Omaha at Full Tilt, playing four tables at a time heads-up for a total of 50,000 hands. Dwan has put up $1.5 million to any opponent's $500,000; the player who is ahead after 50,000 hands will win the money put up by his opponent, while retaining any winnings resulting from play in the challenge.^[11] The Antonius vs. Dwan match has not been finished as of July 2011, lasting longer than two years, as the two pros could not free their schedule to play.

In November 2009, Antonius won the biggest pot in online poker history, $1,356,946 against Viktor Blom, who was at the time known only by his Full Tilt Poker moniker, Isildur1.^[12][13]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Official site
• "Net Working" article by Antonius
• Barry Greenstein's player analysis of Antonius
• Poker Pages profile

Phil Galfond
Galfond, after winning the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha w/Rebuys event at the 2008 WSOP
Nickname(s)	OMGClayAiken (Full Tilt) MrSweets28 (PokerStars)
Residence	North Potomac, Maryland
World Series of Poker
Bracelet(s)	1
Final table(s)	1
Money finish(es)	7
Highest ITM Main Event finish	141st, 2010
World Poker Tour
Title(s)	None
Final table(s)	None
Money finish(es)	1
Information accurate as of 07-16-2010.

Phil Galfond (born January 16 ^[1], 1985) is an American professional poker player. Galfond won a World Series of Poker bracelet in the $5,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys event at the 2008 World Series of Poker. Due to his success as a high stakes online player, he appeared on multiple seasons of GSN's High Stakes Poker.

Personal life[link]

Galfond is originally from North Potomac, Maryland and attended Thomas Sprigg Wootton High School and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He used to reside in New York City where he installed a slide as his access between the two penthouse apartments he purchased in 2011.^[2]

Poker[link]

Live poker[link]

Tournaments[link]

As of 2010, Galfond's total live tournament winnings exceed $996,000.^[3] His six cashes at the WSOP account for $925,936 of those winnings.^[4]

World Series of Poker[link]

Galfond won the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys event at the 2008 World Series of Poker, earning $817,781. He defeated Adam Hourani during heads-up play. The final table featured a number of well known professional players including Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda, Kirill Gerasimov, Johnny Chan, David Benyamine as well as online players Brian 'tsarrast' Rast and Adam 'houdini' Hourani.^[5][6]

World Poker Tour[link]

Galfond finished in 70th place in the 2008 $25,000 buy-in World Poker Tour No Limit Hold'em Championship Event, earning $39,570.

Other notable tournaments[link]

Galfond finished in 18th place at the 2006 World Series of Poker Circuit event in Grand Casino Tunica, earning $22,895.^[6]

Online poker[link]

Galfond is well known for online poker where he plays high stakes cash games primarily $200/$400 stakes and above in No-limit Texas hold 'em and pot limit Omaha tables on Full Tilt Poker under his nickname "OMGClayAiken".^[7] With a lifetime net profit of over $8M in Internet poker play, he has been one of the most successful online poker players in history (as of May 2011).^[8] According to Galfond, he chose “OMGClayAiken” as the antithesis of the “macho” screen names that are prevalent in online poker in hopes that other players would be embarrassed to lose to him.^[9]

Due to the legal actions against online poker that took place on April 15, 2011 in the United States known as Black Friday, Galfond moved to Vancouver, Canada so he could continue to play poker online.^[10][11]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• PokerStatic.com
• BlueFirePoker.com
• PhilGalfond.com

Cao Pi
A 7th century Tang Dynasty era painting of Cao Pi and ministers at his side, by Yan Liben (600-673).
Emperor of Cao Wei
Born	187
Died	29 June 226 (aged 38–39)
Predecessor	Cao Cao
Successor	Cao Rui
Names
Simplified Chinese	曹丕
Traditional Chinese	曹丕
Pinyin	Cáo Pī
Wade-Giles	Ts`ao P`i
Style name	Zihuan (子桓)
Posthumous name	Emperor Wen (文帝)
Temple name	Shizu (世祖)

Cao Pi (187 – 29 June 226^[1]), formally known as Emperor Wen of Wei, was the first emperor of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. Born in Qiao County, Pei Commandery (present-day Bozhou, Anhui), he was the second son of the late Han Dynasty warlord Cao Cao.

Cao Pi, like his father, was a poet. The first Chinese poem using seven syllables per line (七言詩) was the poem Yan Ge Xing (燕歌行) by Cao Pi. He also wrote over a hundred articles on various subjects.

Cao Pi was the eldest son of Cao Cao and his concubine (later wife) Lady Bian. Of all his brothers, Cao Pi was the most shrewd. Instead of studying hard or conducting military affairs, he was always in the presence of court officials in order to gain their support.^{[citation needed]} He was mostly in charge of defense^{[clarification needed]} at the start of his career. After the defeat of rival warlord Yuan Shao at the Battle of Guandu, he took the widow of Yuan Shao's son Yuan Xi, Lady Zhen, as a consort, although eventually she lost his favor and was forced to commit suicide. After he became emperor, his other favorite, Guo Nüwang, became empress.

In 220, Cao Pi forced Emperor Xian, last ruler of the Han Dynasty, to abdicate and proclaimed himself Emperor of Wei. Cao Pi continued his father's war against the rival states of Shu Han and Eastern Wu but was unsuccessful. Unlike his father, he concentrated most of his efforts on his home country. During his reign, he formally established Chen Qun's nine-rank system as the base for civil service nomination, which drew many talents into his government. On the other hand, he drastically reduced the power of princes, stripping off their power to oppose him, but at the same time, rendering them unable to assist the emperor if a crisis arose within the state.

Family background and early career[link]

Cao Pi was born in 187, to Cao Cao and one of his favorite concubines Lady Bian. At the time of Cao Pi's birth, Cao Cao was a mid-level officer in the imperial guards in the capital Luoyang, with no hint that he would go on to the great campaigns he eventually carried out after the collapse of the imperial government in 190. In the period after 190 when Cao Cao was constantly waging war, it is not known where Cao Pi and his mother Lady Bian were, or what their activities were. The lone reference to Cao Pi during this period was in 204, when he took Yuan Xi's wife Lady Zhen as his wife. (Lady Zhen gave birth to Cao Pi's eldest son Cao Rui only eight months later—which created murmurs that Cao Rui might have been biologically Yuan Xi's son and not Cao Pi's, although the possibilities appeared farfetched.)

The next immediate reference to Cao Pi's activities was in 211, when he was commissioned to be commander of the imperial guards and deputy prime minister. This position made him assistant to his father, who was then prime minister and effectively in control of the imperial government. His older brother Cao Ang had died earlier, and Cao Pi was then the oldest son of Cao Cao. Further, his mother Lady Bian was now Cao Cao's wife (after Cao Ang's adoptive mother, Cao Cao's first wife Lady Ding, was deposed), thus making Cao Pi the presumptive heir to Cao Cao.

However, his status as heir was not immediately made legal, and for years there were lingering doubts on whom Cao Cao intended to make heir. Cao Cao greatly favored Cao Zhi, a younger son of his also by Lady Bian, who was known for his literary talents. Both Cao Pi and Cao Zhi were talented poets, but Cao Zhi was more highly-regarded as a poet and speaker. By 215, the brothers were in concord on the surface but each had his own set of associates fighting each other under the surface. Initially, Cao Zhi's party appeared to be prevailing, and in 216 they were successful in falsely accusing two officials supporting Cao Pi -- Cui Yan and Mao Jie. Cui was executed, while Mao was deposed. However, the situation shifted after Cao Cao received advice from his strategist Jia Xu, who concluded that changing the general rules of succession (primogeniture) would be disruptive—using Yuan Shao and Liu Biao as counterexamples. Cao Pi was also fostering his image among the people and created the sense that Cao Zhi was wasteful and lacking actual talent in governance. In 217, Cao Cao, who was by this point Prince of Wei, finally declared Cao Pi as his crown prince. He would remain as such until his father's death in 220.

As King of Wei[link]