Icing Out the Other Poker Players
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the largest and most prestigious poker tournament. With an incredibly long 52-year lifespan, its million-dollar prize pools and coveted bracelets draw in players worldwide, convincing them to try their hand against the best of the best.
While many pros come from America, the birthplace of poker, today, we look at have the perfect player for you: Jeff Lisandro. This Italo-Australian is one of the most accomplished non-American pros of all time. Read more about his accomplishments, early life, and career.
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Player Overview
Jeff Lisandro is an Italo-Australian poker player from Perth, Australia. While he frequently plays cash games, his tournament career is nothing to scoff at. With over $5.7 million from live tournaments, he is sixth on Australia’s all-time money list.
Lisandro also has several tournament records at the WSOP. He has won six bracelets, which ties him with Daniel Negreanu for the most of any non-American player. He’s also one of the best Seven Card Stud players in the world, as shown in 2009 when he won Stud High, Stud High-Low, and Razz, three different forms of Seven Card Stud. This further puts him in an elite category as one of only six people in history to win three WSOP bracelets in a single year, and the only player ever to do it in variations of Seven Card Stud. It also earned him the WSOP Player of the Year award that year and he has been inducted in the Australian Poker Hall of Fame.
Early Life and Career
Jeffrey Lisandro was born on July 30, 1965. He was introduced to poker at a very young age, playing home games with his parents when he was just five years old, growing up near Salerno, Italy. By eight, he was already beating them, an early sign of his future skill.
Lisandro entered the professional poker scene the moment he turned 18. He joined a few small tournaments including the 1995 Festival of Poker in London and the 1996 Torneo Di Poker. Collecting a few thousand-dollar cashes here and there, he made his way to the WSOP in 1997.
He cashed in two events that year, a $1,500 Seven-Card Razz for $2,800 and a $3,000 Pot Limit Hold’em, where he made the final table and earned $12,750.
You might think the nickname “Iceman” reflects Lisandro’s ability to stay calm at the table, but the truth is far stranger. “Iceman” wasn’t even given to Lisandro by a player; he got it from a cashier.
He had a habit of chewing gum to hide his tells at the table, so during the WSOP, he was constantly buying more gum from the corner store across the casino. The cashier noticed how much he was buying, along with the brand name “Ice.” She started calling him the “Iceman,” which has stuck with him ever since.
Tournament Career
Lisandro focused on cash games for most of his career, joining only a few tournaments yearly. His breakout year was in 2004, where he finished third in both the WSOP $2,000 Pot Limit Omaha and $5,000 Seven Card Stud events for over $130,000. He also cashed in three more events this year, the $5,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Split World Championship for $5,680, the $5,000 Limit Hold’em for $10,020 and the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha for $30,000.
Later that year, Lisandro scored a six-figure score by winning the $25,000 Main Event Final of the Heads Up Limit Hold’em Tournament in Las Vegas. He defeated Howard Lederer heads-up to claim the grand prize of $194,000.
After that six-figure win in December 2004, Lisandro began 2005 with an explosive start. In May, he won the $10,000 WSOP Circuit event in Harrah’s Lake Tahoe Poker Festival for $542,360. He still looks back on that time fondly as one of his greatest achievements, not just because of the massive prize but because he beat Phil Ivey heads-up in the finals.
WSOP Dispute and Bracelets
In 2006, the largest WSOP to date, Lisandro finished 17th for $659,730, the largest cash of his career. His run was made even more notable because of an argument between him and fellow player Prahlad Friedman. Friedman accused Lisandro of not placing his ante, when in reality, it was another player who forgot.
Even after the dealer corrected him, Friedman continually brought it up, calling Lisandro a “thief.” The argument eventually escalated to Lisandro threatening to “take Friedman’s head off.” While the argument was intense, there was a moment of levity when another player mentioned how he and his wife planned to travel there to visit her parents upon hearing Lisandro was from Italy. Referring to Friedman, Lisandro replied, “Can you take him with you?”
After finishing sixth in the 2006 European Poker Tour for $145,942, Lisandro scored his first bracelet in the 2007 WSOP. He took down the $2,000 Seven Card Stud event for $118,426. He cashed in five other WSOP events that year, including 2nd in the $5,000 World Championship Pot Limit Hold’em event for $294,620.
In 2008, Lisandro had two big cashes. One was at the 2008 Aussie Millions Poker Championship, where he finished fourth for $131,854. Another was at the WSOP, where he took second in the $5,000 No Limit Deuce to Seven Draw event for $347,704.
In 2009, Lisandro tore through the WSOP. This was the year he scored three bracelets: The first in $1,500 Seven Card Stud, another from the $10,000 World Championship Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo event, and the last from $2,500 Seven Card Razz. He made over $730,000 in total from the three events, and was key in earning him the WSOP Player of the Year award.
Lisandro’s fifth bracelet came in 2010 at the WSOP Europe. He won the £5,000 + 250 Pot Limit Omaha for $245,287. His most recent bracelet was from the 2014 WSOP Asia Pacific Expansion, where he won the $1,650 Pot Limit Omaha event for $44,796.