Poker Stories: Brian Hastings

Brian Hastings is only 33 years old but he has already been playing poker at the highest stakes for half of his life and has put together one of the best resumes in the game. The Pennsylvania native discovered poker from his high school math teacher, and by the end of his senior year, he had already amassed a bankroll of more than $250,000.

Hastings then enrolled at Cornell University, simultaneously earning his degree in economics while also helping to run a poker training site and continue his rise up the cash game ranks online. In December of 2009, he famously took on Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom in a record-breaking heads-up pot-limit Omaha match that saw him win $4.18 million.

Black Friday forced him into the live arena for the first time, and he responded with his first bracelet win in the 2012 $10,000 Heads-Up Championship. He added two more titles in 2015, taking down the $1,500 Ten-Game Mix and the $10,000 Stud Championship. He was back in the winner's circle in 2018 for the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. and just this fall, he earned his fifth career bracelet in the $10,000 Stud Hi-Lo Championship.

Hastings is one of just 29 players to have ever won five or more bracelets at the World Series of Poker. He also has a World Poker Tour final table finish under his belt, and he won a WSOP Circuit ring in 2019. The RunItOnce instructor now has more than $4.4 million in live tournament earnings.

Highlights from this interview include an inspirational teacher, big winner on campus, the Ivy League, how banking $4 million can spoil Disney World, sending his parents to Italy, earning his first bracelet, tackling mixed games, lucky baby socks, a $500,000 pot against Patrik Antonius, un-retiring, slinging pizza and waving signs, a Rounders limo to the casino, playing with Paul Pierce, and Ukrainian Christmas.