Sam Farha

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**Sam Farha**
Sam Farha on GSN's High Stakes Poker. Farha here would draw out on Barry Greenstein's pocket Aces with a King on the flop.
Nickname(s)	None
Hometown	Houston, Texas
World Series of Poker
Bracelet(s)	2
Money finishes	5
Highest ITM main event finish	2nd (2003)
World Poker Tour
Titles	None
Final tables	None
Money Finishes	2

Ihsan "Sam" Farha (born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1959) is a professional poker player, based in Houston, Texas.

1 Early years
2 World Series of Poker
- 2.1 World Series of Poker bracelets
3 Current activities
4 Trivia
5 External links
6 Reference

[edit] Early years

Farha moved to the U.S.A. after civil war broke out in Lebanon when he was in his teens. After settling in Wichita, Kansas in 1977 he attended the University of Kansas. He graduated with a degree in business administration and moved to Houston, Texas to work with his brother. Farha first played a game of poker a year after moving to Houston, and won several thousand dollars. He quit his job in 1990 to play poker full time.

[edit] World Series of Poker

Farha's biggest tournament win was in the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event, where he finished 2nd to Chris Moneymaker for $1,300,000. In a rematch between Farha and Moneymaker a few months later, organized by PokerStars, Farha won. Farha also finished in the money in the 2005 WSOP main event.

[edit] World Series of Poker bracelets

Both of Farha's bracelets have come in Omaha events.

Year	Event	Prize Money
1996	$2500 Pot Limit Omaha	$145,000
2006	$5000 Limit Omaha 8/b	$398,560

[edit] Current activities

Farha is working on a book, tentatively titled Luck is Not Enough, a reality TV poker series, and a video game. He is a spokesman for Harrah's casino in Las Vegas.

He is currently appearing in the GSN series High Stakes Poker.

As of 2006, his total winnings exceed $2,000,000 in tournament poker, although he tends to play high stakes Omaha cash games.

[edit] Trivia

It has been alleged on the World Series of Poker that Farha does not smoke, but he has been seen smoking on several occasions. Due to rules prohibiting smoking in poker rooms, he can frequently be seen with a "lucky" cigarette in his mouth. He is superstitious and if he takes a bad beat he will sometimes change cigarettes. One time, after winning a series of pots, he said, "I'm so hot, my cigarette's going to light!"
Aside from poker, Farha is skilled at many other forms of gaming. He once won a pinball tournament in Kansas, and he won a sizeable bet by winning a Pac-Man competition.
He is the mentor of George Abdallah, who finished 2nd in the $1,500 pot limit Omaha event at the 2006 WSOP. ^[1]
During the second day of play at the 2003 World Series of Poker main event, Farha and Barry Greenstein were in an all-in pot which Greenstein won, leaving Farha deeply short stacked. He intended to leave at that point, unconfident of being able to do anything with the few chips he was left. Greenstein convinced him to stay, and Farha went on to win $1.3 million in the event. ^[2]