Eli Elezra

Eli Elezra was born in 1960 in Jerusalem

Eli Elezra was born on 24 November 1960 in Jerusalem, where he grew up.

At enlistment the army first wanted to place him in a technical role in the Air Force. He refused, was jailed for it, and was finally assigned to the Golani Brigade, where he served in Sayeret Golani and as an officer. He was wounded in the leg in the 1982 Lebanon War and was discharged.

While recovering, he went to work on fishing boats in Alaska, where he first met poker. He later moved to Las Vegas and in 1988 became the owner of a film developing business, which led him into the poker scene. He also owns a chain of stores in the city.

In July 2004 he won the WPT Mirage Poker Showdown and collected $1,024,574. In 2007 he won his first WSOP bracelet in the Seven Card Stud Hi-Low world championship. He plays mainly high stakes cash games, including The Big Game, and appeared on TV shows such as High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark.

A book about his life, written with Matan Krakow and Yoav Ronal, came out in 2017 and in English in 2019 as Pulling the Trigger. He donated about $50,000 to build a gym for his former army unit. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2021 and is a father of 5.