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Dusty "Leatherass" Schmidt will represent Americas Cardroom at poker events (including the upcoming Punta Cana Poker Classic in November), and will also create blogs for the site's members. He will also be closely involved in the selection of other pros for the ACR Elite team, seeking players who are dedicated to the online game and are active in social media. Schmidt will also consult with ACR's Cardroom Manager on ways to improve the site's tables, as well as with the company's development team on possible ways to improve user experience.
Schmidt, 31, has played over 11 million hands and won close to $4 million in his seven-year online poker career. Amazingly, the Portland, Ore., resident has never experienced a losing month at the tables.
"It's conceivable that Dusty has played more hands of poker than anyone in the history of the game," Americas Cardroom spokesman Michael Harris said. "He is easily one of the great thinkers in the game — if not the greatest. Dusty is the rare elite talent who is as skilled at teaching the game as he is at playing it. Signing him as our new online poker pro is a major coup for Americas Cardroom."
"I'm extremely excited to represent Americas Cardroom," Schmidt said. "It really is an honor. I've had a long relationship with the folks who run the company, and I think they're great people."
Schmidt said that in addition to his official responsibilities, he will be an active participant on Americas Cardroom's virtual felt (Leatherass9). He said he is particularly excited about The Beast, ACR's groundbreaking progressive rake race that unlocks huge rewards for the site's biggest grinders. "I'll be playing a lot at the tables," Schmidt said.
Schmidt's personal narrative is the stuff of legend. As a young man, he was a top-ranked golfer and broke two of Tiger Woods' junior records. After turning pro, he was the leading money winner on the Golden States Tour when, at age 23, he suffered a career-ending heart attack.
A year later, he was down to $500 in the bank and in desperate need of funds when a friend introduced him to online poker. "At the time, I barely knew the rules of the game or even shuffle cards," Schmidt said. "But I looked over my buddy's shoulder and saw a tremendous amount of money changing hands, and I was intrigued."
Applying the same principles he learned in his family's small business, Schmidt gradually built up his bankroll. In 2007, he achieved PokerStars' SuperNova Elite status in just eight months while playing high-stakes games exclusively. Schmidt posted the world's highest win rate in both 5/10 and 10/20 no-limit hold'em in 2007 and 2008. In a four-month period between Nov. 2007 and Feb. 2008, he won in excess of $600,000 in high-stakes cash games. In 2010, Schmidt was named to PokerStars Team Online, for which he played until the events of Black Friday in April 2011.
In 2009, Schmidt published his seminal book, Treat Your Poker Like A Business, which has been published in eight languages. A follow-up is planned for later in 2012. He also co-authored the strategy book, Don't Listen To Phil Hellmuth, which was released in 2010. Schmidt is a columnist and blogger for Card Player, where he started in 2010.
Schmidt returned briefly to golf as an amateur in 2009, winning medalist honors in qualifying for the Oregon Amateur Championship. Around that time, he famously issued the "Million Dollar Challenge," where he said he would play anyone in the world in a combination of golf and poker, with $1 million going to the winner. The United States Golf Association then stripped Schmidt of his amateur status, leading Schmidt to represent himself in federal court in his suit against the organization.
Schmidt is also respected philanthropist. Two years ago he founded the House of Cards Project, a charitable effort to provide food and shelter to disadvantaged families.
Schmidt's story has been featured in Sports Illustrated, the Associated Press, Card Player, Poker News, Golf Magazine, Fairways and Greens, Golf Week, Golf World and the Portland Oregonian, as well as on ESPN.com, cnn.com, wallstreetjournal.com, forbes.com, fortune.com, golfdigest.com and golf.com.
