Alan "Ari" Engel is a Canadian professional mid-to-high stakes poker player with four World Series of Poker bracelets, a record 17 WSOP Circuit rings, and over $9.6 million in career live tournament earnings.
Ari first broke through at the WSOP Circuit in Atlantic City in 2007. He captured his first WSOP bracelet in 2019 in a $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em event for $427,399, and added a second in 2021 in the $10,000 Omaha Hi/Lo 8-or-Better World Championship for $317,076. Two more bracelets followed — both in online events in 2023 and 2024.
His signature live result remains the 2016 Aussie Millions Poker Championship, which he won for $1,120,110 — his only seven-figure score. Other deep runs include a third-place finish in the EPT €10,000 No-Limit Hold'em High Roller in 2016 for €307,900 and a sixth in the EPT Prague Main Event.
Away from the felt, Ari grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household near Chicago, where he spent much of his childhood studying sacred texts. After graduating from New York University with a double major in finance and business management, he planned for Wall Street — until he ran $150 into $15,000 online in ten days and quit his day job to play poker full-time.
He remains one of the most prolific live tournament grinders in the game, tied for third on the all-time WSOP Circuit ring list.