Chad Batista is a 25-year-old professional poker player from Coral Springs, Florida. Batista fell in love with poker when he was just 18 and is regarded as one of the best online poker players around. Though he confesses to not having competed in too many live tournaments, he has fared impressively in the ones he has participated in.
Nicknamed “Lilholdem”, a nickname he also uses online, Chad Batista briefly worked as a telemarketer, before turning his attention towards poker. Batista learned poker by watching other players, and admits that he has never read a poker book. Fiercely competitive, Batista prefers to use his instinct rather than mathematical calculations to excel in poker.
Chad Batista, known as "Jse81" on Full Tilt Poker and "lilholdem954" on Pokerstars, finished 2007 as one of the top online poker players in the world, winning the Full Tilt Poker $1 Million Guarantee in July and taking home $212,000. In September that year, he came away with $91,000 after picking up the win at the Pokerstars Super Tuesday tournament. Batista ended 2007 on top of the Pocketfives.com leader board with 17762.99 points. In addition, he made it to 8th on Cardplayer.com’s Online Player of the Year rankings. Chad Batista kicked off his 2008 online campaign by winning the $300 New Year's Resolution tournament on Full Tilt Poker in January, ahead of 720 other competitors for prize money of $46,000.
Chad Batista’s first major live tournament was the Caesars Indiana Poker Tournament, a World Series of Poker circuit event, in October-November 2006. He finished 4th in the No Limit Hold'em event there, picking up $16,762 for his efforts. He then picked up his first live tournament win a few days later when he won the No Limit Hold'em Championship event, finishing ahead of 168 other competitors to take home an impressive $262,002 as prize money. He put in another impressive performance at the 38th Annual World Series of Poker in 2007, when he finished 9th in the No Limit Hold'em and took home a substantial $129,064. He went back to Caesars Indiana in 2007, where he finished 7th in the No Limit Hold'em event for $5,033. His most impressive live tournament performance in 2008 came at the Bellagio Cup IV, where he made the final table and finished 3rd in the No Limit Hold'em event, earning $122,570 in the process.
Chad Batista Quick Facts - Live Tournaments:
- Cashes: 5
- Tournament wins: 1
- Career prize money: $535,431
