Diego "The D Train" Cordovez
Diego Cordovez was born in 1965 in New York and has been nicknamed the "D Train" for his aggressive but steady, unstoppable play. Diego beat 395 opponents to win his first bracelet from the 2000 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and won $293,000 at the $2,000 buy-in No Limit Hold'em event.
Diego Cordovez ranked sixth among U.S. poker tournament players in 2002. He almost got two more bracelets that very same year - He had a 3rd place finish in the No-Limit Hold'em event and a 2nd place finish in the S.H.O.E. event which gave him around $62,000 in prize money. He then took first place in the 2002 L.A. Poker Classic Limit Hold'em event, and took home $570,000. In 2003 he bagged 2nd place in the tenth event of the year's WSOP, the Half Hold'em/Half Seven-Card Stud. The first place winner was Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, another big winner in the poker scene.
He started playing poker in the first grade when his primary school teacher used poker to encourage the children to learn and improve their basic math skills. He remained an avid fan of poker, reading every book he could on it, before venturing into serious play in 1991.
Cordovez is the CEO of Advanced Global Applications which is a company that builds online poker sites. As a successful businessman, he claims that playing poker professionally is too much of a strain for him. Although, to this day he plays poker 20 hours a week, live and online, varying his games in order not to get bored.
Cordovez contributed several articles to Card Player Magazine. He has related card playing with business management in some of his articles, as he sees similar strategies between the two different venues. For example, he once said that "the winning player--in the card room and in the board room--is the one who possesses emotional intelligence, who understands the motivations of fellow players above all else."
Cordovez had said by way of advice, "Really watch everything that is going on in a game. Concentrate all the time and you’ll do better than more talented players who are distracted."
Diego Cordovez once described himself as a "bubble boy" in one of his articles, a player who finished once out of the money.
Fun Facts:
- CEO of Advanced Global Applications: a company that builds online poker sites.
- Graduate of Stanford University.