Generation Ace: Poker Players Under 25

Don't get cocky with the kid across the table who doesn't look old enough to drink - you just might end up funding his college tuition

Sept. 13, 2006

By Jake Gosselin
Bodog Nation Contributing Writer

Does it seem like some of the players in your game might be skipping school to be at the poker table? The members of the young tech-savvy generation who have embraced online poker so thoroughly have branched out and started to show they can play with the big boys in live tournaments. Here are four of the top young players of Generation Ace:

Jeff Madsen

Madsen was teetering on the verge of becoming a household name this year when he became the youngest player to win a World Series of Poker bracelet. He also collected a second bracelet and a third-place finish.

This is a truly unprecedented entrance into the world of professional poker. Johnny Chan was still a dishwasher at 21. At 21, Stu Ungar was still hustling gin games in New York, Phil Helmuth was playing $20 games in college and Daniel Negreanu, the original “Kid Poker”, didn’t find his legs until he was 23.

Madsen turned 21 (the minimum age required to play in the WSOP) only five weeks before we won his first bracelet, making it extremely unlikely that his record for youngest bracelet winner will be beaten any time soon.

Madsen was born and raised in Los Angeles but now lives in Santa Barbara where he studies film at the University of Santa Barbara and despite his total poker earnings being just short of $1.5 million, he intends to return to school. But it’s just film school so it’s pretty much like a vacation anyway, right?

Madsen’s bracelet wins include the $2,000 No-Limit Holdem and the $5,000 No-Limit Holdem Short Handed 6/Table.

Eric Froehlich

Born on Feb. 9, 1984, Froehlich was the youngest poker player to win a WSOP bracelet until Madsen showed up.

Froehlich, not unlike T.J. Cloutier, was an athlete who turned to playing cards after an injury. Like Team Bodog pro David Williams, who he later befriended, Froehlich began his career with success in the card game Magic: The Gathering.

Froehlich started playing poker in high school and began playing online when he was 18. By April of 2005 he knew what he wanted to do and dropped out of the University of Virginia to become a professional poker player.

That year, Froehlich was old enough to play in the WSOP and he won a bracelet in the $1,500 Limit Texas Holdem event.

Froehlich showed this year that he intends to maintain his momentum. He won a second career bracelet, taking the Pot Limit Omaha with Rebuys event.

With lifetime earnings (lifetime being just two years) of $690,960, we can be sure to see more of this young gun from Washington, D.C. for long time to come.

Sannon Shorr

Born in 1985 in Birmingham, Ala. (and now residing in Tuscaloosa), Shorr has made a career of cashing in tournaments. Since American tournaments tend to have a minimum age requirement of 21, Shorr got a head start by playing in European tournaments.

Now that he’s 21, Shorr has been making his money on this side of the pond. Most recently, in the 2006 Bellagio Cup II Tournament, he cashed in several events, including a first-place finish in the championship event that earned him a cool $960,690.

His lifetime earnings are $1,399,141 and he’s ranked No. 2 in the Card Player, Player of the Year Rankings.

Eric Feld

Feld turned 21 on July 23 and it's almost certain he was the youngest player to compete in the 2006 WSOP Main Event, which began on July 28.

Feld qualified through and competed for Team Bodog. While Feld failed to cash in the Main Event his exceptional performance and outstanding online record set him apart as one of the next generation of young guns.

Photo: Eric Feld representing Generation Ace at the 2006 WSOP (Bodog Nation Photo).