Barny Boatman

Barny M. Boatman was born on 10 January 1956 in London, England. He grew up in Archway and learned poker at home with friends, later teaching his younger brother Ross how to play. The two began attending tournaments together at the Victoria Casino on Edgware Road, where Barny won his first event—a seven-card stud tournament that paid around £2,000. This early success ignited a lifelong passion for the game.

Boatman’s most famous association is with the Hendon Mob, a group of four players who became icons during the poker boom. The Mob consisted of Barny, his brother Ross Boatman, Joe Beevers, and Ram Vaswani, all of whom either lived in or regularly played in the Hendon area—a suburb of north London. The quartet met at a private home game run by Beevers and Vaswani and soon began traveling together to tournaments. They gained widespread recognition through appearances on early televised poker shows, most notably Late Night Poker, where Barny reached the finals in seasons three and four (1999–2002).

The Hendon Mob name also became synonymous with the largest live poker results database in the world. When Alex Dreyfus of the Global Poker Index approached the group to acquire the website, they agreed, securing their legacy. As Boatman explained, "He had the vision of what it was about, and we were delighted to do a deal with him. Our legacy was secured." Today, the database tracks over 778,000 players and remains the go-to source for tournament results.

Boatman’s career is marked by consistent high-level performance across multiple disciplines. At the World Series of Poker (WSOP), he won his first bracelet in 2014 in a $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball event, earning $297,230. He also finished as the top British player in the WSOP Main Event in both 2000 and 2001. In 2002, he made three consecutive WSOP final tables, including a second-place finish in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em event. His other notable results include a third-place finish in the 1999 Master Classics of Poker, finalist in the 2001 Poker Million, and winning the Finnish Open Championship in 2003. Over his career, his live tournament earnings have surpassed $5.7 million, with a single best cash of $1,388,059. As of late 2025, he had recorded 264 cashes, including a $4,592 cash in October 2025.

Barny Boatman is known for his balanced and methodical style, often described as tight-aggressive. He emphasizes patience, strong hand selection, and positional awareness, reading opponents carefully to exploit weaknesses. His calm demeanor at the table rarely betrays emotion, earning him a reputation as a composed and disciplined competitor. He has also demonstrated versatility, being ranked among Europe’s top players in Seven Card Stud and Omaha as well as No-Limit Hold’em. He credits his longevity to continuous study and a deep respect for the game.

Beyond the felt, Boatman has been a prolific writer and educator. He has written over 50 articles for The Hendon Mob website and created two online poker lessons for Matthew Hilger’s site Internettexasholdem.com. He also starred in his own series, Barny’s Home Games, where he visited home poker games across Great Britain. A member of the Gutshot Card Club, he was sponsored by Full Tilt Poker during the online poker boom. He holds the distinction of appearing on one of the first televised poker programs to show players’ hole cards—Late Night Poker—which predated the World Poker Tour and helped spark global interest in the game.

Now in his late sixties, Boatman continues to compete at high buy-in events worldwide. In July 2025, he recorded a cash of $4,990, and his total live earnings reached $5,723,257, placing him 384th on the all-time money list. He remains a beloved figure in the poker community, celebrated not only for his results but for his role in shaping the modern game. The Hendon Mob database, which he helped found, stands as his enduring contribution—a resource that tracks the careers of hundreds of thousands of players. Barny Boatman’s journey from a home game in north London to international fame exemplifies the spirit of poker’s golden era.