A Face (and a Streak) in the Crowd

As a reporter surfing the rail, looking for color stories to add to the PokerNews.com blog, you'll come across some interesting fans. We noticed a man and wife with identical red streaks in their hair, who were carrying a picture of the whole family as well as their two dogs Bogie and Spencer, all with the same red streaks. How cute!

In talking further, we found out they were Ira and Ellen Friedman, parents of often flamboyant poker player Perry Friedman, who has worn that red streak in his hair throughout this year's WSOP. How's that for family support?

Perry is bright, articulate, and was valedictorian of his high school class. A top math and science student, Perry was accepted at Harvard, Brown, MIT and Stanford, electing to attend the latter, where he earned both a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree in Computer Science.

Perry was one of the original employees of Tiltware, which designed the software for Full Tilt Poker. He won a WSOP bracelet in Omaha hi-lo in 2002 and played a number of events at this year's Series, making the final table of Event #28 ($3,000 no-limit hold'em) and ultimately finishing 7th.

Along with Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Perry's in the audience this evening sweating fellow Full Tilt Pro Lee Watkinson.