Erik Seidel (born November 6, 1959) is an American professional poker player from Las Vegas, Nevada who has won eight World Series of Poker bracelets and a World Poker Tour title.

In 2010, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.

Seidel was born in New York City. Originally a tournament backgammon player for eight years, he eventually started playing the stock market, and then moved on to poker.

He was one of the group of now famous players from the Mayfair Club, including Stu Ungar, Jay Heimowitz, Mickey Appleman, Howard Lederer, Jason Lester, Steve Zolotow, Paul Magriel and Dan Harrington.

In his first major tournament, Seidel was runner-up in the 1988 World Series of Poker main event to Johnny Chan. This final hand was featured in the movie Rounders. Seidel made the WSOP main event final table again in 1999, finishing in 4th place in the event won by Noel Furlong.

He won his first WSOP bracelet in 1992 and won his eighth and most recent bracelet in 2007. Seidel has won bracelets in five different games, including Hold'em, Omaha, and Deuce to Seven Draw. Only four players in the history of the WSOP, world champions Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, and Johnny Moss, have won more bracelets than Seidel.

Daniel Negreanu (pronounced /nɨˈɡrɑːnoʊ/; born July 26, 1974) is a Canadian professional poker player of Romanian origin. He has won four World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour Championship titles. He is currently ranked second in the all-time career earnings list and is the star of poker game show Million Dollar Challenge. He plays a big part in the Pokerstars.net Big Game.

Negreanu was born in Toronto, Ontario. In 1967, his parents, Annie and Constantin, emigrated from Communist Romania, hoping to start a new life in the United States. Instead, they ended up settling in Toronto, where Constantin worked as an electrician and sold confectionery. Daniel was born five years after his brother, and even at an early age was extremely ambitious. "From the age of four, I thought I’d be rich. I told my mom I’d build a house out of Popsicle sticks, and move to Cafornia (sic),” Daniel recalls in a 2009 interview.

Daniel Negreanu attended Pineway public middle school in North York, where the principal complained to his mother about Daniel's "poor manners or behavior" and threatened to expel him for "ignoring the school rules." While nursing dreams of a career as a professional snooker player, the now 15-year-old Daniel learned how to play poker. By 16, he was spending time in pool halls, hustling, sports betting, and playing cards. When he was several credits short of graduation Daniel dropped out of high school and began his life as a rounder playing at the local charity casinos, usually at Casino Country and Fundtime Games, and looking for illegal games around the city. While in Toronto, Daniel met and began dating Evelyn Ng, who would also become a well-known professional poker player. After building up his bankroll, he left for Las Vegas at the age of 22 to pursue his dream of becoming a professional poker player. However, "The Strip" got the better of him and he was forced to move back home to Toronto to rebuild his bankroll.

Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon (born October 8, 1970) is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting (1997) from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck. The pair won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and a Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay for their work. Damon alone received multiple Best Actor nominations, including an Academy Award for his lead performance in the film.

Damon has since starred in commercially successful films such as Saving Private Ryan (1998), the Ocean's trilogy, and the Bourne series, while also gaining critical acclaim for his performances in dramas such as Syriana (2005), The Good Shepherd (2006), and The Departed (2006). He garnered a Golden Globe nomination for portraying the title character in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Invictus (2009). He is one of the top 40 highest grossing actors of all time. In 2007, Damon received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was named Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine. Damon has been actively involved in charitable work, including the ONE Campaign, H2O Africa Foundation, and Water.org.

Gustav "Gus" Hansen (born Gustav Jacobsen on February 13, 1974 outside Copenhagen, Denmark) is a professional Danish poker player who lives in Monaco. In his poker career, Hansen has won three World Poker Tour open titles, the 2007 Aussie Millions main event and was the season one winner of the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament. Before turning to playing poker professionally in 1997, Hansen was already a world class backgammon player and a youth tennis champion.

Hansen was voted one of People magazine's 50 Sexiest Men in 2004.

He calls himself a professional gambler and has been known to take private bets on various personal athletic challenges (such as a boxing match against WSOPE bracelet winner Theo Jorgensen) other than poker and professional sports. Hansen has been involved previously or currently in several online business ventures, including PokerChamps.com (now Betfair Poker), ThePlayr.com and GusHansenTV. He is also involved with Full Tilt Poker.^{[citation needed]}

Hansen started playing poker at the Ocean View Card Room in Santa Cruz, California. while he was an exchange student at UC Santa Cruz. Hansen finished in the money in 150th place in the 2004 Main Event. In the 2006 Tournament of Champions, Hansen made a World Series of Poker final table, but lost on the very first hand with Ace King against a pair of 9s. In 2007 Hansen cashed in the money in the $10,000 no limit Texas hold 'em championship, coming in 61st place out of a field of 6,358 players, winning $154,194. In 2008 he came in 160th place out of a field of 6,844 players to win a prize of $41,816.

Michael Matusow (born April 30, 1968 in Los Angeles, California) is an American professional poker player, residing in Henderson, Nevada. Matusow's nickname of "The Mouth" reflects his reputation for trash-talking at the poker table. He is also known for sometimes ruining hours or days of good play with a single spectacular misjudgment, (known as a "Mike Matusow Blow-up" or "Mike Matusow Meltdown").

Matusow began playing poker seriously in the early 1990s, first while working as a poker dealer, then as a professional player. His successes include being a three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, and the winner of the 2005 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions.

Matusow's first experience of poker was playing video poker in the Maxim Casino at the age of 18, which he played regularly, to the extent that he suffered from repetitive strain injury in his shoulders and arms. He occasionally stole money from his mother's purse and at one point attended Gamblers Anonymous meetings. Matusow was taught Texas hold 'em in 1989 by a rounder named Steve Samaroff.