Considered by many poker superstars to be “the best unknown player in the world”—a label first bestowed by Phil Hellmuth on Card Player’s “The Circuit” radio show, Canadian Brad “Yukon” Booth has firmly established himself amongst poker’s elite players. Long a mainstay in the biggest cash games in Las Vegas casinos, Brad plays in the staggering side action (including $200-$400 No Limit Hold ‘Em) amongst the world’s top players with the likes of Phil Laak, Daniel Negreanu, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, and Johnny Chan. Booth has recently expanded upon his poker-playing repertoire to include tournament play, with results equally impressive to his consistent dominance in side games. Most notably, Booth this past June played his way to a third-place finish in the World Poker Tour’s Mandalay Bay Championship, earning himself a hefty payday of nearly $320,000.
 

Born and raised in Vancouver, Booth honed his unique playing style in the same sort of smoky, backroom games that poker legends such as Doyle Brunson and T.J. Cloutier once populated decades earlier in Texas. Unlike many of today’s younger breed of player, Booth, now 31, never read a poker book while learning the game, instead relying upon experience and an acute instinct for reading people and situations to achieve his success.

However, that acute instinct was a developed at price. Bradley, at the age of 16, felt as though his scholastic pursuits, within the confines of a classroom, had reached a quintessential defining moment - he made the decision to leave. Unfortunately, Mr. Booth had just negotiated with his parents that he would receive a car upon completion of the school year. As Bradley’s choices were mutually exclusive, he opted for a cover-up. In an endless succession of stealthy covert operations, he snuck out of the house each morning with his Little Caesar’s Pizza uniform taking the place of his books. He worked at the pizza parlour, funding his nightly romps at the poker table. Again, the undercover, and underage Booth, gained access to private card rooms throughout western Canada. As he had yet to secure the car at this point, young Bradley traversed the lower mainland on the good graces of his friendly neighbours. Often reaching into his pocket for his last $8 on a round of $4-8 Limit Hold ‘Em desperately trying to get three way action so he could get right back into the game. Unfortunately, Brad found himself destitute after many of his card room escapades- forcing him to hitch-hike to and from his house, work, and newly assumed night owl position as a burgeoning young poker room shark. As his parents were operating under the auspices Brad was both attending school and engaging in some very late night ‘study sessions’ - Brad received his reward of an ’87 Chevy Sprint to transport him, to and from his studies… at the card room.

It was those back alley smoke-filled card rooms that gave Yukon Brad his flair and flavour. Utilising an unparalleled aggressive style, friendly table banter, and his carefree and effervescent personality, Mr. Booth quickly caught the eye of poker legend, Doyle Brunson when they played together at the 2005 World Series of Poker. Recognizing Bradley as a talent to bank on in the near future, Doyle signed Booth under the banner of DoylesRoom.com, an online poker site with many notable poker professionals. As a pioneer of the online poker world, Booth’s swift and assertive play has translated to some real world success. With some impressive cashes including $87,755 at the 2005 Fiesta al Lago No-Limit Hold'em, $48,300.00 at the 2005 4th Annual Five Diamond World Poker Classic, as well as $43,935.00 at the 2006 4th Annual Five-Star World Poker Classic, coupled with the dedication and conviction required to sit in 16 hour sessions every day for 3 years; it is no wonder why this Yukon resident has caught the eye of this legend.

Booth finished 12th in the $5,000 short-handed No-limit Hold ‘em event in the 2005 World Series. In February, he finished 30th in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars championship event, collecting a $5,000 bounty for busting Layne Flack along the way. He appeared on the second and third seasons of Game Sports Network's hugely popular TV series, High Stakes Poker.  He took 5th place in the Crystal Casino's 1st Annual Heads Up Championship event, and followed that up with an impressive 9th place finish in the 2007 NBC National Heads Up Championship at Caesar's Palace against one of the toughest fields ever assembled.  He was on the second season of Poker After Dark where his opponents were: Daniel Negreanu (Canada), Gus Hansen (Denmark), David Benyamine (France), Patrik Antonius (Finland), and Sam Farha (Lebanon).

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