April, 2021 Austin TCH Monthly Champion GEORGE BRONSTEIN
Originally from Galveston, Texas, George Bronstein has been playing poker from a young age, since his father was into different kinds of card games. We sat down with George to talk about him and get to know him on a more personal level.
George started his family in Houston, after moving there as a teenager, and once his kids were older, they all moved to Colorado for 8 years. And eventually ended up in Austin, as his family started to come back to Texas, he “wouldn’t live anywhere else in Texas but Austin”.
For 52 years, Bronstein worked in the newspaper business, settling contracts in several different companies like the Houston Chronicle. He was part of the management of door-to-door subscription sales, with about 150 people working under him. This position helped him raise his family and put his 3 kids through college.
Within the poker setting, George has participated in WSOP live action games, and has been on ESPN channel as well, played against the best of the world, which he said makes him feel fortunate that he’s been able to be a part of that.
Locally, he’s a regular for TCH Austin, he’s one of the founding members with membership # 5. And of course, has been to other clubs to vary his poker routine. Before the pandemic, George used to travel to play poker in different state’s casinos, but for the past year he’s really enjoyed the local poker clubs.
He’s always preferred playing tournament games because the prize pools are very good, strategy has to be solid, and you have to be a good player as well. However, tournaments certainly require long hours of play, which has been different recently since he’s decided to slow down some. Even though, there’s a lot of tournaments happening that he wants to be a part of.
Being a good player of course comes with preparation, watching the best of the best and reading a lot into the details of poker itself, and George’s favorite poker player is Daniel Negreanu.
George heard from the WPT Steps Tournaments at TCH by word of mouth, being a regular player helps with finding out about these things and knowing what’s going on around. He’s played the weekly Step 1 and bought in for the monthly step 2 which he cashed out from and advance to the invitation only Step 3 tournament.