Gavin Griffin was born in Illinois and originally had hopes of playing professional baseball. He was offered several scholarships, but instead decided to study Speech Pathology in Texas. Gavin had also discovered poker by this point and would soon find the lure of the green felt too hard to resist.
After a few losing sessions in home games with his college friends, Gavin began studying poker books and quickly developed into a winning player. In 2004, he travelled to Las Vegas to play in the WSOP* and managed to win a bracelet, in the $3,000 Pot Limit Hold’em event. The achievement of winning a World Series event at the first time of asking was impressive enough, but it also meant that Gavin had set a new record for being the youngest ever player at the time to win a bracelet.
Since then, Gavin has cashed in several other major tournaments, including a 3rd place finish at a WSOP* Circuit event. In 2007, Gavin found his biggest win yet. After qualifying via a PokerStars satellite, Gavin won the Grand Final of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Season 3 in Monte Carlo. The victory earned him $2,434,061 and the respect of the global poker community. In January 2008, Gavin made history once again, by winning the WPT Borgata Winter Open. In addition to the first place prize money of $1,401,109, the win also meant that he became the first player ever to win the 'triple crown', with a World Series bracelet, an EPT and a WPT victory. In all, Gavin's total live tournament earnings currently stand at almost $4,500,000.
In his spare time, Gavin helps raise money for breast cancer charities, alongside his girlfriend, who managed to beat the disease herself. PokerStars has also donated money to some of the charities he supports. Gavin also enjoys relaxing with his pets and watching movies from his collection of more than 500 DVDs.
Having already achieved so much in the poker world- and all of it coming before he’s even turned thirty years old- Gavin Griffin could well go on to become one of the greatest players the game has ever seen. He has already proven himself to be a positive ambassador for the game as a whole. He is a member of Team PokerStars Pro and plays online using the screen name ‘GavinGriffin’.
Profile courtesy of PokerStars.
