T.J Cloutier is a professional poker player, born on October 13, 1939. He resides in Richardson, Texas.
Early Life of Cloutier
- J. Cloutier, the poker Hall of Famer’s place of birth was at Albany, California. He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, on an athletic for football and baseball scholarship, and he played in the Rose bowl competition of 1959. He couldn’t further and later dropped out of college due to financial constraints in his family.
After a while, Cloutier got drafted into the Army of the United States for Toronto Argonauts and Montreal Alouette. He later played football for the Canadian league.
A kneel injury short-lived Cloutier’s football career, which he sustained while playing at the Canadian league. When his career ended in football, he became a food vendor, which also ended up unsuccessful.
He was reportedly married, and the marriage was short-lived. After the separation, he moved to Texas to work with an oil company. He began playing poker on his free days; he realized how he was making good money and so decided to quit his job, focusing full-time on poker. Poker fans knew Cloutier for engaging in high-stakes craps sessions.
Poker Career of Cloutier
Cloutier specifically plays tournament poker, mostly no-limit and pot-limit hold ’em. In the World Series of Poker (WSOP) history, Cloutier is the only player to have won events in three types of Omaha played at the World Series.
The Omaha types he won were limit high, Pot Limit High, and Limit 8-or-Better High-low split. He owns six World Series of Poker championship to himself and many others from various poker tournaments.
In the top five at the Main Event of the World Series of Poker, He finished 4th four times plus two second-place finishing, in 1985, where he lost to Bill Smith. In 2000, he was defeated by Chris Ferguson.
In 1988 and 1998, Cloutier finished in fifth and third place, losing to Johnny Chan and Scotty Nguyen respectively.
In 2009, he was among the players who left the main event due to late registration, which ended or closed that day. Cloutier later took responsibility for his action; he blamed himself for not registering early enough and that he wasn’t expecting to be treated in a unique way different from others.
T.J Cloutier also participated in the World Poker Tour (WPT) events, held in 2003, where he came third place at the Legends of Poker event. Professional poker player, Mel Judah defeated Cloutier and others to win the event. He also played in an invitational tournament of poker stars, the Poker Ultimate Challenge, Heads-Up National Poker Championship, and Poker Royale termed ‘’Battle of the Ages’’.
By 2017, his total winnings in all live tournaments exceeded $10,350,000, and over $4,675,000 was won at the world series of Poker (WSOP).
Career Highlights of T.J Cloutier
The number of WSOP bracelets won:
- $1,000 WSOP Limit Omaha hi, $72,000 winnings in 1987
- $1,500 WSOP winning $135,000 in 1994
- $163,000 winnings in $2,500 pot-limit Hold ’em in 1994
- $2,500 WSOP ‘’Pot Limit Omaha Hi’’ $136,000 winnings in 1998
- $90,500 winnings in $1,500- 7 card Razz in 2004
- $5,000 WSOP-$657,100 winnings in 2005.
T.J Cloutier Networth
T.J. Cloutier, who is currently 71 years of age, remains a point of reference for the world series of poker successful players.
He is one of the wealthiest poker players in WSOP history, with his six bracelets and fifty-five World Series of Poker cash, which amounted to $4,322,186. T.J Cloutier currently is among the top 10 in the poker all-time money list, where he occupies the 10th position.
On January 24, 2010, his total lifetime earnings were estimated to be $9,787,199.