Olivier Busquet, born August 22, 1981 in New York City, is a long-time high-stakes poker player with an impressive resume. The poker pro is a Cornell University graduate with a degree in philosophy. Prior to taking on poker as a career, he spent some time working on Wall Street.
Busquet's skills span far beyond the live poker scene as he was long considered one of the top heads-up online specialists. He's crushed it in cash games, tournaments, and as an online poker grinder. And he's done so for many years.
On top of proving his skills on the felt, Busquet has done some impressive work off the felt, most notably as a commentator for the WPT Alpha8 tour on Fox Sports. He also competed against and defeated fellow poker player J.C. Alvarado in a 2016 mixed martial arts (MMA) match.
Intro
In the live tournament streets, the New Yorker has proven his abilities with over $9 million in cashes, according to The Hendon Mob. That's even more impressive when you consider he essentially stopped playing poker professionally and regularly in 2020.
Around the time COVID hit, Busquet left the live poker world, although he still occasionally resurfaces. Busquet's most memorable win came in September 2010 when he took down the $3,500 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) Borgata Poker Open in Atlantic City, New Jersey for $925,514.
That wasn't his biggest cash, however. In August 2014, at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona series, he won a $50,000 buy-in high roller for $1,188,986, beating Dan Colman, another poker legend who mostly stepped away from the game around the same time, heads-up for the title.
At the World Series of Poker (WSOP), Busquet is still in search of his first gold bracelet, but he's cashed in 42 bracelet events along with two WSOP Circuit tournaments.