John Kabbaj

Infobox poker player

| imagesize = 150px
firstname=John
lastname=Kabbaj
nickname= Large
|caption=John Kabbaj in the William Hill Poker Grand Prix
hometown=London, United Kingdom
wsop bracelet count="None"
wsop money finishes=9
wsop main event best finish rank="None"
wsop main event best finish year=2004
multi-year wsop winner=
wpt titles=
wpt final tables=
wpt money finishes=
ept titles="None"
ept final tables=1
ept money finishes=3

Jean-Michel (John) "Large" Kabbaj (born 1973? in Birmingham, West Midlands) is an English professional poker player, referred to by The Hendon Mob as their unofficial fifth member.

Before poker

Kabbaj quit school at the age of 16. He worked as a builder, and was later employed at Heathrow Airport.

Poker career

Tournaments

Kabbaj became a professional poker player in 1995, after winning his first major tournament at the Main Event of the 1995 Christmas Cracker tournament in London. He defeated a field including Dave Gardner (father of Julian "The Kid" Gardner) and Ram "Crazy Horse" Vaswani to take home the £14,750 first prize. He quit his job at Heathrow the next day.

Kabbaj made his first money finish in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in 1999, finishing 9th in the $3,000 pot limit hold'em event won by Layne Flack. He finished above several notable players, including Eli Elezra, Lucy "Golden Ovaries" Rokach, John Bonetti and Paul Phillips.

In 2000, Kabbaj made his one and only appearance on the popular Late Night Poker television series. He finished 7th in a competitive heat including Charalambos "Bambos" Xanthos, Peter "The Bandit" Evans and Victoria Coren. Kabbaj went on to win tournaments in London and Moscow during 2001.

At the 2004 WSOP, Kabbaj finished as the runner-up in the $3,000 no limit hold'em tournament. He won $260,520 for his finish, and was ahead of numerous players including Ram Vaswani, Paul Phillips, Amir Vahedi, John Juanda, Annie Duke, Martin "The Knife" De Knijff, Johnny "Oriental Express" Chan and Surinder Sunar.

In late 2004, Kabbaj also made the final table of the first European Poker Tour event in Barcelona.

During 2005 he made four money finishes in the WSOP.

As of 2008, his total live tournament winnings exceed $1,300,000.

Cash games

Kabbaj is a regular in the £10-£20 pot limit Omaha game at LittlewoodsPoker.com. He plays at levels up to £25-£50 online.

Personal life

Kabbaj is in his second marriage, to Olesya Lopatko (born in St. Petersburg, Russia). He has one son, named Jamie, from his first marriage.

Trivia

* Kabbaj lives in the West End in order to be close to the Victoria Casino.
* He had laser eye surgery in the summer of 2005.
* At the 2006 World Series of Poker, Kabbaj played a super satellite for the $50,000 HORSE event. In one hand he made Four of a kind and lost to a Straight flush; the very next hand he lost to a Royal flush. ^{[http://www.simonacestrumper.com/diary-090706.html]}

External links

* [http://www.cardplayer.com/cpeurope/article.php?a_id=402&m_id=22 Card Player Profile]
* [http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=132 Hendon Mob tournament results]