Alfredo “Toto” Leonidas was born in the Philippines in 1960 and has over $3 million in tournament earnings. After moving to California, where he now resides, Leonidas began frequenting card rooms and learning poker. His skill level increased and the nickname “The Ripper” was soon given to him due to his aggressive style of play.
Throughout the 1990s, Toto had a lot of success in smaller buy-in events throughout the West Coast. He had his first WSOP cash in 2000 when he finished ninth in the $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em event. At the 2002 WSOP, he cashed three times with one second-place finish for over $67,000.
Leonidas continued to grind and upon returning to the WSOP felt in 2003, had his eyes on winning a bracelet. In the first event has cashed in, the $1,500 Seven-Card Stud event, Toto did just that. He won the event, receiving his first gold bracelet and nearly $100,000. He went on to cash five more times that year, including two final tables.
At the 2003 United States Poker Championship in Atlantic City, Toto bested a final table that included Mark Appleman, John Hennigan, Phil Hellmuth, and Erik Seidel to take home the $388,080 first-place prize.
In 2005, Toto continued to put up solid performances. He placed third for $60,000 in the Bay 101 Shooting Stars of Poker PPT event and also cashed four times at the World Series. Amongst those cashes was a second place in the $2,000 Limit Hold’em event for over $160,000. Another $100,000 rolled in when he placed second in the FullTilt.net Poker Global Poker Challenge in Las Vegas.
In 2006, Leonidas had somewhat of a down year when he earned only $84,374 in tournaments. Things increased the following year when he took home over $230,000 total from tournaments in 2007 and then almost quadrupled that in 2008 with over $860,000 in winnings. He is also a Full Tilt Pro.
