A professional poker player rarely rises through the ranks, ultimately taking a seat at the top table. These types of players are animals full of spirit that don’t mind the calf-muscle strain of running up the hill and have an intellectual capacity that dwarfs the field. Find those attributes, sprinkle in some run good, and the ability to foster the right connections and your vista may change.
It’s certainly changed for Thai Ha.
The 29-year-old, Pennsylvania-based pro, began competing on the live tournament scene in 2013. Ha’s first port of call was the low-stakes $200-$300 buy-in tournaments around North America.
Ha’s first big score came three years later, winning a 513-entrant $350 No-Limit Hold ’em DeepStack Bounty event at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Borgata Winter Open for $43,359. His first six-figure score came in 2016, and once again the WPT served it on a platter after Ha took down a 4,075-entrant $350 No-Limit Hold ’em event during WPTDeepStacks Lucky Hearts Poker Open for $230,422.
Supplemented with a larger bankroll, and infused with confidence and run good, Ha’s mind bribed him into taking a shot at the $1k+ buy-in market, and since then, he’s never looked back.
In 2019, he promoted himself into the highest stakes games, finishing runner-up to Alex Epstein in the $10,000 Short-Deck No-Limit Hold ’em at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) for $183,081. He also finished runner-up to Siamak Tooran in the 111-entrant €25,500 Short-Deck Hold” em High Roller at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) for a career-high score of $511,788.
Unfortunately for Ha, COVID-19 put an end to his impressive run by wiping live tournaments from the face of the planet. Before the pandemic struck, Ha made two final tables at partypoker MILLIONS Super High Roller Series in Sochi, finishing 3/61 in the $25,500 Short Deck event, and 8/55 in the $50,000 Short Deck event,
Ha has won $2.4m playing live tournaments, including four career titles.
Ha Signs for Natural8
Ha’s ascent to the top of poker’s tournament food chain has not gone unnoticed. The Asian-facing online poker skin, Natural8, has signed him as a brand ambassador joining the likes of Danny Tang, Michael Soyza, Henri Bueller and Kitty Kuo.
The Pennsylvanian native goes straight to work in the WSOP Super Circuit Series, and the hire is synergistic. Natural8 operates on the GGPoker network, and GGPoker is hosting the WSOP Super Circuit Series.