DOB: 20 July 1965
Education: Law degree.
Career Highlights:
Learning to play with his mother in Belfast of Northern Island, he began playing on a more serious level in 1986 while he was studying law at Trinity College in Dublin. He was a member the poker school there that had also previously schooled noted pros Donnacha O'Dea and Padraig Parkinson. He also started playing at the local casino in Dublin apparently because of the free food and coffee.
Black has never managed to pick up a World Series of Poker bracelet though he has had more than a fair amount of success at the tournament. Running into a bad beat against eventual winner Stu Ungar at the 97 Main Event, he has 12 money finishes to his name so far. His most notable placing was fifth in the 2005 Main Event
Since 2005 he has picked up money finishes in the World Poker Tour and also in the European Poker Tour. He ran up against Daniel Negreanu in the 2006 tournament of champions and lost his chip lead. He scraped through to finish fifth and pick up $100,000. In 2007 he started out with a good run at the Aussie Millions placing second in the Pot Limit Omaha event and third in the Main Event to pick up $750,000. Black has also dominated the Irish tournaments in 2004 upon his return to poker.
After being knocked out of the 97 Main Event, he returned the following year where the documentary Million Dollar Deal was made of his visit to the tournament. When he unfortunately bust out of that, he discarded all possessions immigrated to England and lived in a semi-monastic Buddhist environment for 5 years.
Currently his live tournament winnings exceed $4 million dollars.
