Thomas Keller (born October 14, 1980 in Ann Arbor, Michigan) is an American professional poker player, residing in Scottsdale, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada. He is the brother of Shawn "Lightning" Keller.

Keller graduated from Stanford University with a degree in economics in 2002. It was at Stanford where he began playing poker, having been influenced by the movie Rounders. Like David Williams and Noah Boeken, Keller credits his experience of playing The Gathering as a helpful factor in his poker career.

In December 2003, Keller won the $281,525 first prize in the $2,500 no limit hold'em event of the Five Diamond World Poker Classic, defeating Allen Cunningham in the final heads-up confrontation.

He went on to defeat Martin "The Knife" De Knijff to win a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2004 in the $5,000 no limit hold'em event.

Keller also appeared on the World Poker Tour (WPT) Young Guns of Poker invitational, where he finished 4th. He is also a part of Robert Williamson III's Team America in the Poker Nations Cup.

Keller has been a primary columnist for Card Player Magazine since 2004.

He married his wife Andra on April 24, 2004. Andra gave birth to their first child, Kaylee Keller, in September of 2006. They are expecting their second child in late February of 2009.

Keller lost over 200 pounds after having gastric bypass surgery.

Keller cashed twice at the 2008 World Series of Poker including finishing in 61st place out of 6,844 entries in the $10,000 buy-in Main Event, earning $115,800.

As of 2010, his total live tournament winnings exceed $1,200,000. His 5 cashes as the WSOP account for $789,127 of those winnings.

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"A kaiseki meal is like that, very small courses over a long period of time.""Food should be fun.""Hopefully, imparting what's important to me, respect for the food and that information about the purveyors, people will realize that for a restaurant to be good, so many pieces have to come together.""I drank more wine when I wasn't working as much, to be honest.""I have no formal culinary training, right.""I hope the cooks who are working for me now are getting that kind of experience so they can use what they're learning now as a foundation for a great career.""I like to drink young wines, wines which are robust and have a lot of forward fruit to them.""I think every young cook wants to write a book.""I wanted to learn everything I could about what it takes to be a great chef. It was a turning point for me.""I wanted to write about what we were doing at the French Laundry, the recipes and the stories.""In any restaurant of this caliber, the chefs are in the same position, building relationships.""It wasn't about mechanics; it was about a feeling, wanting to give someone something, which in turn was really gratifying. That really resonated for me.""It's one thing you aspire to: someday, you'll be able to write a book.""Let's face it: if you and I have the same capabilities, the same energy, the same staff, if the only thing that's different between you and me is the products we can get, and I can get a better product than you, I'm going to be a better chef.""My childhood wasn't full of wonderful culinary memories.""My favorite wines are Zinfandels.""No, it's funny, when I eat out it's not typically in the kind of restaurants people might imagine.""Now the restaurants have begun to catch up with the wine-making; there are numerous great restaurants in Napa Valley, and it's wonderful because the people are there for just that: great food and great wine.""Once you understand the foundations of cooking - whatever kind you like, whether it's French or Italian or Japanese - you really don't need a cookbook anymore.""Some of the recipes in the book have evolved for us. Many haven't.""The book is there for inspiration and as a foundation, the fundamentals on which to build.""The law of diminishing returns is something I really believe in.""Then, as the day progresses, depending on how the product is coming in - for instance, the fish man will fax us and say black bass is great - throughout the day, we'll also make judgment calls and adapt to what's available.""They know what my standards are. They know what I need and how to get it to me, and they know how to communicate with me if for some reason they can't get it.""We go through our careers and things happen to us. Those experiences made me what I am.""We rely on our purveyors to tell us what's available and what's good.""When I go out to eat, it's usually something moderate in style.""Whether it's destiny or fate or whatever, I don't think I could do a French Laundry anywhere else.""You're getting to know who the great chefs are through their books.""Your idea of that dish has evolved, and if you're a cook, you can start thinking in different ways about it, maybe even a different way than I think about it."

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Thomas Keller", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0

Total Books: 33

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