Guru Bios

Danielle Striker is a live cash grinder in Las Vegas, Nevada. For over 15 years, she has been a Texas Hold’em tournament player, winning hundreds of tournaments both live and online. Danielle has played well over 5 million hands of Texas Hold'em all over the globe, including at The Aviation Club in Paris, France, and at the Casino de Barcelona in Spain. 

In 2013, Danielle played in her first World Series of Poker Main Event after winning her seat by winning first place in a Las Vegas $10K tournament league. She has won thousands of dollars, and lost thousands of hands, but never missed the lessons that poker and life have taught her.

Danielle’s love of poker, combined with the study of the fundamental nature of existence, led her to create Poker Samadhi, to help others play their best game and live their best life.

Poker is a deep-thinking game and a game of observation. It’s been said that, “Poker is a game of people, played with cards.” Observing yourself and others is key to becoming a great player. One night, when Danielle was playing poker, she had a “peak” experience - it was really like an out-of-body experience. Danielle recognized that poker is analogous to life, and that both are a game.  

Danielle has read over 350 books on all variations of poker and catalogued their wisdom to create Poker Samadhi. She has studied with many poker legends including Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Annie Duke, Greg (Fossil Man) Raymer, Joe Hachem, Alex Outhred, Annette Obrestad, Phil Gordon, Joe Navarro (FBI Tell Author) and online with Phil Ivey and high-stakes cash player Alec Torrelli. She has also taught poker with her mentor, Tom McEvoy, a four-time WSOP Champion. 

From a philosophy perspective, she has read and studied with hundreds of human-potential Gurus, and self-help experts, including Werner Erhard, Deepak Chopra, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Bob Proctor, Marianne Williamson, Mike Dooley and, most recently, Sadhguru. 

Bad beats come in poker and in life. Having survived numerous bad beats in life, poker gave Danielle’s life new meaning, and gave her the opportunity to help others thrive when faced with challenging situations - not only at the poker table, but also in life.

Danielle’s love of poker and of life led her to create Poker Samadhi, to help others play their best game and live their best life.

Tom McEvoy is a Poker Guru. He was born, and grew up in, the rather conservative city of Grand Rapids, Michigan.  

So how did this former accountant wind up in the anything-but-conservative world of poker? Tom was tired of working for other people and got the best break of his accounting career - he got fired.  He was already in his 30s and ready to take a chance on something new, namely a poker career. 

This all came about because of his grandmother. He grew up playing penny ante poker with her, starting when he was only five years old. Grandma used to beat the socks off of Tom and his brothers. She taught them how to play, and staked them about $1 each to play on, and then proceeded to win it back off of them. It was either get better or keep losing to grandma. They all got better. In fact, Tom and his two brothers started to run their own poker games at their house. They played with each other as well as the neighborhood kids. His mother would often receive phone calls from irate mothers complaining about the McEvoy boys. His mother usually replied: “If your little Billy was stupid enough to play poker with my boys, he got exactly what he deserved.” After a phone call like this, she would then chew her boys out for playing with little Billy and tell them not to invite him back to any future games. About a week would go by and little Billy would apologize for his mother’s phone call and beg the McEvoy boys to let him back in the game. They usually did, with the same results for little Billy - but no more phone calls from mom.

After losing his last job in the corporate world, he decided to do something completely different. He had spent a week in Las Vegas a few months prior to his dismissal, and won about $1,000 in the poker games there. Since his salary at that time was only $18,000 per year, he thought there might be something to this poker after all. He spent a year flying back and forth from Grand Rapids to Las Vegas, before deciding to take a shot at a full-time professional poker career. He convinced his wife that this was a good path to take, and broke the news to their three young children. When telling his parents and assorted friends and relatives, he spent most of the discussion trying to convince everyone that he had not lost his mind. 

He arrived in Las Vegas with one wife, three kids, three cats, a U-Haul trailer that said “Vegas or Bust” on the back, and a firm desire to succeed. Four years later, in 1983, he won poker’s ultimate prize: The World Series of Poker. 

After 25 years, Tom still loves playing poker and living in Las Vegas. He won three additional World Series titles, but he’s probably better known today as a  “Poker Guru”, teacher and writer.  

Tom McEvoy has authored over 13 books on the subject. 

T.J. Cloutier is one of the most popular poker-playing legends of all time. There is no one who serves up “old school” poker wisdom like T.J. Cloutier. He is considered one of the world's best tournament poker players and considered, by many professionals, to be one of the most gifted poker players to ever live. 

The main reason for his popularity on the felt, is because he always conducts himself with class. The most memorable evidence of his character was clearly displayed at the final table of the 2000 World Series of Poker main event, when T.J. Cloutier and Chris Ferguson were heads up. During the last hand of that event, T.J. was dealt what would have been the winning hand, until Chris Ferguson spiked a dreaded nine on the river to pass the Championship title to Ferguson. Ferguson asked T.J., "Are we still friends?" and T.J. replied, "Of course. Don't feel bad, you played great." He gave Ferguson a big hug even though, at that moment, most players would have been distraught and heartbroken. T.J. handled it like a consummate professional. He coined the saying, you have to be able to “Lose like a Winner” – the wisdom and sign of a true champion.

Cloutier has six World Series of Poker bracelets, in the 1987 limit Omaha, 1994 Omaha Eight-or-better, 1994 Pot-Limit Hold'em, 1998 Pot-Limit Omaha, 2004 Seven-card Razz, and 2005 No-limit Hold'em events. He also won the 2004 Festa al Lago main event and the 2003 Bellagio Five-Star World Poker Classic. He has more than $9 million in tournament winnings, and he is a member of the Poker Hall of Fame. He has won over 50 major events with buy-ins of $500 or more. For years, he has been one of the leading top five money winners at the World Series of Poker, and the 3rd greatest money winner at $2,992,841. T.J. has also placed four times in the top five of the $10,000 WSOP main event, including two second place finishes to Chris Ferguson in 2000, and previously to Bill Smith in 1985. T.J. has also been given four Hall of Fame watches and been named tournament player of the year, in 1998 and 2002. T.J. won $10,000 in No Limit Hold'em three years running 1990-1992 and has also co-authored three poker books.

During tournaments, you will often find a crowd surrounding T.J. You can always tell where T.J. is seated because that is where all the action is happening. T.J. is one of the legendary road gamblers, and one of the group of men who travelled every Southwest town in search of the next big game. Younger players enjoy hearing T.J.'s stories of his historic poker days in the backrooms of Texas. T.J.'s memory is sharp as a tack, and he remembers every con man, crooked gambler and beautiful woman that ever crossed his path.  

Away from the table, Cloutier spends time with his wife Joy, their six children and XX grandchildren.

T.J. is proud to be a Poker Samadhi Guru and to share his unique brand of poker and life wisdom with you!