Joe Pelton, a professional poker player and business analyst, was born on July 20, 1977 in Waterloo, Iowa but currently lives in Newport Beach, California. He is a graduate from the Harvery Mudd College and it was there he got his nickname “Moral Pillar”.
The first break in his poker career came in October, 2004, when he won $7,000 at the Aruba Poker Classic WPT Event Season 3 No-Limit Hold’em. He walked away with $11,135 and managed to finish 36th at the 36th Annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) Event #2 – WSOP No-Limit Hold’em, in June 2005.
2006 turned out to be an amazing year for Joe Pelton, even though he began the season with a 42nd-place finish at the 37th Annual WSOP Event #25 – WSOP Shootout – No-Limit Hold’em, earning $4,805. Little did he know that he was going to record his biggest ever victory in August 2006. At the Legends of Poker WPT Event Season 5 No-Limit Hold’em Championship held at the Newport Beach, California he defeated pros Scotty Nguyen and Hoyt Corkins and walked away with $1,577,170. In this match, Joe Pelton had a A-7 offsuit while going heads up against Frankie O’Dell, who had 6h 6d. Joe Pelton raised to $400k and Frankie O’Dell re-raised all-in and Joe Pelton called. A flop of Ad, Jh, 3d almost sealed the deal for Joe Pelton and a turn of 2c and a river of Qs finally confirmed his victory. He finished third at the Festa al Lago WPT No-Limit Hold’em Championship Event where he bagged $292,220, in October 2006.
Joe Pelton made some regular cash winnings in 2007, starting with the Bay 101 Shooting Star WPT Event Season 5 No-Limit Hold’em Championship in March, 2007, when he finished 29th and got $30,000. He made a decent $4,319 at the 38th Annual WSOP Event #10 - WSOP No-Limit Hold’em and an awesome $74,000 with seventh place finish at Event #47 WSOP No-Limit Hold’em, both of which were held in June, 2007. In July, 2007, he managed to win $4,840 at the 38th Annual WSOP Event #52 WSOP No-Limit Hold’em by finishing 86th. Joe Pelton played at the Legends of Poker WPT Event Season 6 No-Limit Hold’em and won a small amount of $1,520, securing 47th place.
Joe Pelton came back with a brilliant victory and finished fifth at the 39th Annual WSOP Event #49 WSOP No-Limit Hold’em with $191,068 in prize money. His total live tournament winnings have exceeded $2,200,000, as of 2008.
Joe Pelton counts famous players like Grinder, C.K. Hua, and Sean McCabe, who play at the WPT Event, as some of his favorite players. Joe Pelton became a regular online poker player ever since he saw the PartyPoker.com Million on the Travel Channel. Apart from poker, he closely watches the financial markets which help him to write about his trades on a regular basis. Though he is a busy poker player he still takes time to travel.
