Eric Schneider

Tom Schneider was born on December 24, 1959, in Indianapolis, Indiana, and later settled in Phoenix, Arizona. Before turning to poker full-time, he built a successful career in business as a certified public accountant and served as the president of a public golf company as well as chief financial officer for three Arizona companies. He was also the controller for Ping Golf. Schneider began his poker journey in 2002, drawing on skills honed in the boardroom. His early foray into the game included a 36th-place finish in the 2002 WSOP Main Event, signaling his potential. He credits his mother for introducing him to poker, paying him $5 to babysit his sister, which he used to start a daily poker game.

Schneider's breakout year came in 2007 at the World Series of Poker, where he captured two bracelets: the $2,500 Omaha/Seven-Card Stud Hi/Lo 8-or-Better event for $214,347 and the $1,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi/Lo 8-or-Better for $147,713. He also finished fourth in the $2,500 H.O.R.S.E. event, earning $54,769. These outstanding results earned him the prestigious 2007 WSOP Player of the Year award. He added a third bracelet in 2013 by winning the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event for $259,960, defeating Owais Ahmed heads-up. Later that same year, he secured his fourth bracelet in the $5,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, outlasting Benjamin Scholl to win $318,955. With that victory, he became the first player in WSOP history to win multiple mixed-game bracelets in the same year. As of 2017, his total live tournament winnings exceed $2.4 million, with 46 WSOP cashes accounting for $1.6 million of that sum.

Beyond live tournaments, Schneider found success in online poker under the screen name 'luvgamble' on PokerStars. On September 16, 2008, he won Event #24 of the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), a $530 buy-in No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw tournament, besting a field of 308 players to earn $42,000. He also made two World Poker Tour final tables, including a third-place finish in the 2006 WPT World Poker Challenge ($256,115) and a fourth-place finish in the 2007 WPT Legends of Poker ($228,625). His consistency across formats—from mixed games to online variants—showcases his versatile skill set.

Schneider is a man of many talents. He is the author of the book Oops! I Won Too Much Money: Winning Wisdom from the Boardroom to the Poker Table, which blends poker strategy with business lessons. He co-hosted the popular podcast Beyond the Table and contributed columns to Pokerati. In his spare time, he pursues a career in country music as a singer-songwriter; one of his songs, "Just Another Day," was written about the Sandy Hook tragedy. Schneider also makes cameo appearances in pop culture: he played an uncredited role as a poker dealer on the CSI episode "Last Lady Standing" (Season 13, Episode 16). He is married to Kathy and has two children, along with three stepchildren.