Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Tom Schneider learned to play poker at the kitchen table with his mother and quickly took that knowledge into games with his friends. He used the money he made babysitting his sister to play five-card draw with his friends at school, and he continued to find games all the way through his school. After graduation, his sister bought him a copy of Doyle Brunson’s Super System which encouraged him to play a smarter and more refined hold’em game. During his time at Arizona State University, where he would earn a degree in finance and accounting, he played in local cash games and made frequent trips to Las Vegas to earn an income.

Tom graduated and moved into the corporate world, holding various high level positions in companies that specialized in golf supplies and equipment. Throughout his career, he continued to play poker, move up in limits, and eventually decide to play in the occasional tournament. He found that he had a knack for tournament poker, cashing twice in the 2002 World Series of Poker – one of those being a final table appearance in the pot-limit hold’em event. Finally, he decided to ease out of his job in the corporate world when he found that he made a comfortable living at the poker tables.

In 2006, Tom made his first World Poker Tour final table and gained recognition from his third place finish at the World Poker Challenge main event in Reno, taking home his biggest cash to that point of $256,115. He made another WSOP final table in 2006, but it was in 2007 that the poker world stood up and took notice of this incredible talent. Tom not only won two WSOP bracelets – one in the $2,500 Omaha/seven-card stud eight-or-better event and another in the $1,000 seven-card stud eight-or better – but he final tabled a third tournament, the $2,500 HORSE event, where he finished fourth. All of this earned him the WSOP Player of the Year award and much recognition throughout the poker world. Most recently, he made the final table of the WPT Legends of Poker tournament in 2007 and came in fourth place. There seems to be no end to what this corporate-minded, very skilled player can do.