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Entertaining at the tables, popular among both players and fans, Humberto
Brenes is one of a kind. The native Costa Rican has been playing poker for 35
years, and now ranks 21st among all-time tournament money winners. He has
numerous final tables on the World Poker Tour and at the World Series of Poker
to his credit, and one of the longest track records of tournament success
among any active player.
Brenes was born in 1951 in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. At the age of
7 he learned the game of poker from his father, who played socially. (It's
worth noting that a talent for playing poker doesn't end with Brenes - his
brothers Erick and Alex are also professionals.) After earning an engineering
degree in his home country, Brenes began a career as a gambler. He mostly
played baccarat and craps tournaments, eventually making his way to poker in
1974 at the urging of a friend. In 1987 he made his first World Series of
Poker main event cash, and the following year he began playing tournaments
regularly. He hasn't looked back since then.
In 1988, his second year in the main event, Brenes finished 4th at a tough
final table - just two spots behind runner-up Erik Seidel and three behind the
reigning champion, Johnny Chan. While Brenes hasn't made his way back to the
final table of the main event since then, he has definitely made his own mark
on the WSOP in the intervening years. From 1987 to 1996, Brenes cashed at
least once at the WSOP every single year. During that period he made final
tables in seven-card stud, Omaha, and hold'em tournaments, demonstrating his
skill in a variety of games. Two of those final tables came in 1993, when he
took home the only two bracelets of his career - one for the $1,500 Pot Limit
Omaha event and another for the $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em event. Two others were
runner-up finishes.
The year 2002 marked the start of unprecedented success for Brenes. In January
he took home the title at the main event of the Jack Binion World Poker Open,
earning over $500,000. That spring he made three final tables at the WSOP, two
in pot-limit Omaha and one in limit hold'em. At the Hall of Fame tournament
that summer he made 5 final tables in tournaments with buy-ins of at least
$1,000, including one win and two 2nd-place finishes. Through the end of the
year and the beginning of 2003 Brenes continued to run well, cashing twice at
the Five Diamond Poker Classic and 5 times at the WPO. He missed the money in
the main event at the WPO, shutting him out of a television appearance with
the new World Poker Tour, and then bubbled out of the TV table with a 7th
place finish in the main event of the LA Poker Classic.
Brenes finally got his shot at the WPT in 2004. After another successful run
at the WPO he played in the WPT Invitational at Commerce Casino in Los
Angeles. He made the final table along with an impressive lineup of fellow
tournament players, including Antonio Esfandiari, Harry Demetriou, Jose
Cassidy, John Juanda, and Phil Laak. Brenes managed to outlast all of them
except Laak, who defeated Brenes in a memorable match-up. After his first TV
appearance, the Costa Rican went quiet. With no cashes at the WSOP or any
other tournaments after the WPT Invitational, the rest of 2004 seemed as if it
would go by without another Humberto Brenes final table sighting.
Then Brenes played in the WPT main event of the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods
in November. He placed 3rd, outlasting fellow professionals David Pham and
Bradley Berman and taking home the single largest prize of his tournament
career - $636,930. Just one month later, after he made two final tables in
preliminary events at the Bellagio's Five Diamond World Poker Classic, Brenes
turned in another outstanding performance - he placed 2nd in the main event.
At a whopping $923,475, this prize easily eclipsed his November win at
Foxwoods - and it capped off an incredible run with style.
Brenes has continued to stay active on the tournament trail since his string
of WPT appearances, cashing 5 times at the 2005 WSOP as well as at various
preliminary events on the WPT schedule. When he's not playing poker he can be
found at home in Costa Rica, where he lives with his wife and 3 children and
owns an Univision station, a construction company, and several restaurants.
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