Thomas James 'T.J.' Cloutier

Thomas James "T.J." Cloutier hails from Albany, California, and was born on October 13, 1939. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2006, after winning his sixth World Series of Poker bracelet in 2005. His six WSOP bracelets are as follows: 1987 one thousand dollar Limit Omaha Hi, 1994 one thousand five hundred dollar Limit Omaha 8-or-Better, 1994 two thousand five hundred dollar Pot Limit Hold'em, 1998 two thousand five hundred dollar Pot Limit Omaha Hi, 2004 one thousand five hundred dollar Seven Card Razz, and 2005 five thousand dollar No Limit Hold'em.

He is the only person to ever win in all three of the World Series of Poker's Omaha tournaments, namely; Pot Limit High, Limit 8-or-Better High-Low Split, and Limit High. Despite that, he has never won in the World Series of Poker's Main Event. He has participated and placed in the top five four times for that event, and in 1985 and 2000, he placed second.

Cloutier was originally an athlete, and had managed to get an athletic scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley for baseball and American football. He even played in the Rose Bowl in 1959, but had to drop out of college because of problems with family finances. He continued to play football in the Canadian Football League, but was unable to continue his athletic career because of an injury.

Cloutier's poker playing days started when he was working as a caddy at a golf course. He would play the game after the rounds. Later, he moved to Texas to work on oil rigs after unsuccessfully attempting to start a food company. During his days off, Cloutier would play poker. He eventually resigned when he realized that he was making more money from his poker winnings than he was at his job. As his poker skills grew, Cloutier began to specialize in tournament poker games.

Second to Phil Hellmuth, who currently has forty-one World Series of Poker final table finishes, T.J. Cloutier has the most final table finishes for the World Series of Poker, with thirty-nine. He was featured in Poker Royale: Battle of the Ages, the Ultimate Poker Challenge, the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament, and the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. He plays in the World Poker Tour -also known as the WPT- and his highest finish has been third place, in the 2003 Legends of Poker event.

Aside from being an accomplished tournament player, T.J. Cloutier has also written and co-written five books on the subject of poker, and was once a contributing writer to Card Player magazine.