T.J. Cloutier (Thomas James Cloutier) is a professional poker star and one of only a few who has been inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. T.J. has proved over a lengthy poker career that he has the skills to beat anyone at the table on any given day and definitely deserves to be one of the select few who have been elected into the Poker Hall of Fame.
T.J. was born in Albany, California and grew up as an athlete who played a ton of sports in school and out of school. Cloutier attended the University of California, Berkeley and was on an athletic scholarship for football and baseball. T.J. has played in the Rose Bowl once during his time in university, but he was never able to graduate with a degree because his family had financial hardships which needed to be dealt with and were a higher priority at the time then schooling.
After dropping out of university Cloutier was drafted into the US Army. After serving time with the US Army Cloutier moved to Canada and played in the Canadian Football League (CFL). His career was ended though when he underwent a career ending injury. After the injury T.J. tried his luck with his own business which was in the food sector, but that didn’t pan out as expected. T.J. then started working on the oil rigs in Texas as well as playing poker in his off time.
Once T.J. realized that he could make more money playing poker then working out on the rigs he quickly quit his job to play poker everyday. Cloutier specializes in Holdem although he has won WSOP bracelets in other poker games as well throughout his career. T.J. has won six WSOP bracelets and finished in the money 54 times in WSOP tournaments which is an incredible number. Cloutier hasn’t seen as much success playing on the WPT or EPT and hasn’t won any titles, but between the two circuits he has finished in the money ten times in his career. Cloutier has made 39 final table appearances in WSOP events which is only trailing Phil Hellmuth who has made 41 appearances.
Over Cloutier’s Poker Stars career he has won just under $10 million in live tournaments which is great considering that when T.J. started playing the prize pools we’re much smaller then they are nowadays. Almost $5 million of Cloutier’s winnings have come when he is playing in WSOP events.
When T.J. isn’t playing poker he is usually busy writing poker content so that this generation of poker players have the knowledge they need to see success. He has co-written four books outlining strategy for tournament play, Holdem, Omaha and NL & PL Holdem. Cloutier has also just finishes writing his own book titled “How to Win the Championship – Holdem Strategies for the Final Table. The book was released for sale in 2006 so make sure you pick up your copy if you haven’t yet.
T.J. is one of the best PokerStars.net player in the world and his poker resume is enough evidence for that statement. Not many other poker players have been able to win as many tournaments as T.J. or win as much money as he has in his poker career.