Sam Farha

Ihsan Sam Farha, born 23 February 1959 in Beirut, Lebanon, is a Lebanese professional poker player best known for finishing second in the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event, where he lost to Chris Moneymaker for 1,300,000 dollars after going all in with a pair of jacks and being called by Moneymaker holding bottom two pair. His family moved to the United States after the Lebanese civil war broke out in 1975. He earned a business administration degree at the University of Kansas, playing pool, ping ball and Pac-Man well enough to win money from others, then settled in Houston, where he first met poker in the eighties, and later left his job to move to Las Vegas. He has won three WSOP bracelets, all in Omaha events, co-authored the book Farha on Omaha, appeared on High Stakes Poker in its first four seasons and made a cameo in the 2007 film Lucky You.