Steve Brecher
Encyclopedia
Steve Brecher is an American professional poker
player.
$2.5K No-Limit Hold'em event for $15K. In 2004, he reached the final table of the World Poker Tour
$25K No Limit Championship, finishing in 6th place and winning $232K. In 2005, he finished 3rd in the $9.7K No Limit Hold'em event at the United States Poker Championship, pocketing $218K.
In 2009, Brecher took his first major tournament title by winning the WPT Bay 101
Shooting Star tournament. He beat over 300 other players to win more than $1 Million, defeating Kathy Liebert
heads up after the longest final table in WPT history.
As of March 2011, his career cashes exceeded $2 million.
platform. He wrote Suitcase, the seminal font management program for the Mac, which was originally self published under the brand Software Supply, later distributed by Fifth Generation Systems, and eventually acquired by Extensis
, which still publishes a (greatly improved and rewritten) version of the program more than 20 years after Brecher's original release. He also, together with Billy Steinberg, wrote Pyro, the original Mac screen saver application. In addition to application software, Brecher was a significant contributor to the FreePPP
project, which brought Macintosh computers onto the Internet, and developed low-level driver software for some of the earliest Macintosh hard disk drives.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Brecher was regarded in technology circles as a "programmer's programmer", and was a Contributing Editor of MacTech
magazine, for which he wrote the Ask Professor Mac column, and answered technical questions from readers. His later interest in professional gambling was foreshadowed by his 1980 book, Beating the Races with a Computer.
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
player.
Poker career
In 1999, Brecher placed 8th in the World Series of PokerWorld Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker is a world-renowned series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas and, since 2005, sponsored by Harrah's Entertainment...
$2.5K No-Limit Hold'em event for $15K. In 2004, he reached the final table of the World Poker Tour
World Poker Tour
The World Poker Tour is a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting the final table of each tournament. It was started in the United States by attorney/television producer Steven Lipscomb, who served as CEO of WPT Enterprises , the firm that...
$25K No Limit Championship, finishing in 6th place and winning $232K. In 2005, he finished 3rd in the $9.7K No Limit Hold'em event at the United States Poker Championship, pocketing $218K.
In 2009, Brecher took his first major tournament title by winning the WPT Bay 101
Bay 101
Bay 101 is a cardroom in San Jose, California. Like other California cardrooms, Bay 101 offers poker cash games and tournaments as well as special "California" style table games....
Shooting Star tournament. He beat over 300 other players to win more than $1 Million, defeating Kathy Liebert
Kathy Liebert
Kathleen H. Liebert is an American professional poker player.- Poker :Liebert started her professional poker career as a prop player in Colorado...
heads up after the longest final table in WPT history.
As of March 2011, his career cashes exceeded $2 million.
Computer programming career
Before turning his hand to professional poker, Brecher was a renowned computer programmer and author who was instrumental in creating some of the earliest popular programs (and their product categories) for the MacintoshMacintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
platform. He wrote Suitcase, the seminal font management program for the Mac, which was originally self published under the brand Software Supply, later distributed by Fifth Generation Systems, and eventually acquired by Extensis
Extensis
Extensis is a software company based in Portland, Oregon. Its three main products are Extensis Portfolio, Suitcase Fusion, and Universal Type Server....
, which still publishes a (greatly improved and rewritten) version of the program more than 20 years after Brecher's original release. He also, together with Billy Steinberg, wrote Pyro, the original Mac screen saver application. In addition to application software, Brecher was a significant contributor to the FreePPP
FreePPP
FreePPP is a Point to Point Protocol implementation for computers running Mac OS prior to Mac OS X. FreePPP was widely considered the first working and most stable version of PPP for Apple Macintosh and led many PPP internet service providers to support Macintosh users for the first time.Besides...
project, which brought Macintosh computers onto the Internet, and developed low-level driver software for some of the earliest Macintosh hard disk drives.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Brecher was regarded in technology circles as a "programmer's programmer", and was a Contributing Editor of MacTech
MacTech
MacTech is the journal of Apple technology, a monthly magazine for software developers, system administrators, and other technical users of the Apple Macintosh line of computers....
magazine, for which he wrote the Ask Professor Mac column, and answered technical questions from readers. His later interest in professional gambling was foreshadowed by his 1980 book, Beating the Races with a Computer.