Isai Scheinberg is an exceptionally bright individual who was inspired to found PokerStars, one of the most popular and profitable online poker sites in the world, by his passion for the game of poker.
PokerStars’ position as the undisputed market leader it has now is directly attributable to his forward-thinking ideas and his willingness to take calculated risks. However, he did pay a price for some of the chances that he made.
Please feel free to browse through this extensive biography of Isai Scheinberg if you are interested in learning more about him, including his contributions to PokerStars, the dangerous choices he made in the past that turned out to be unsuccessful, and what he is doing now. We are certain that you will acquire knowledge that was previously unknown to you.
In the Beginning
Isai Scheinberg was born in the year 1946 in the country of Israel. In less than a year from the time of his birth, his family relocated to a rural area in Lithuania. Because his father did not earn enough money to adequately maintain the family, Scheinberg was compelled to work on the weekends as a cleaner at a nearby distillery in order to contribute financially. He was the eldest of 5 children, and his younger siblings all looked up to him because of his position as the oldest. Because of the age disparity of ten years that existed between him and the rest of his siblings, they thought of him more in the role of a father figure than as a brother.
Because he did not want to disappoint them, he put in a lot of effort at both his schoolwork and his part-time job. Regularly, he would work additional hours in the distillery, and in his spare time, he would devote himself to his academic pursuits. He had a perfect grade point average of 4.0 thanks to his hard work in school. The decision of which university to enroll in was not a difficult one for him to make since he had been awarded a scholarship that covered all of his educational expenses at Moscow State University in Russia.
At first, he intended to get a degree in business, but around the conclusion of his first year in college, he decided to switch his major to something else. He excelled so well in a few different types of math classes that he decided to switch his major to mathematics. He attended the institution for both his undergraduate and graduate studies in mathematics, and he graduated with degrees in both.
Before beginning his career, he served in the Israeli Defense Force as part of his mandatory military service. During the War of Attrition, he served for a total of three years. He was one of the troops who was in charge of producing Israel’s first weapons that were designed specifically for the army.
The fact that he had a background in mathematics enabled him to create weapons that were renowned for their precision.
Developing a Passion for Playing Poker
When he was serving his country in the armed forces, he was the one who taught himself how to play poker for the very first time. In the evenings, he joined the other troops in his barrack for games, and they helped him develop into a skilled player very rapidly. He was recognized for his aggressive style of play and his willingness to take chances, both of which contributed to his success. He also devised his own techniques for winning.
After he completed his service in the Israeli Defense Force, he applied for and was offered a position as a programmer in the Israeli branch of IBM. Because he was so productive at his job, the company decided to dispatch him to their headquarters in Canada in order to instruct the programmers working there. During his first week in Canada, he was playing poker at Diamond Tooth Gertie’s Gambling Hall when he made the acquaintance of a lady called Libby.
After dating for just a single year, the pair tied the knot and bought their first house together in Richmond Hill, which is located in the province of Ontario. In 1973, they became parents to a boy who they called Mark and who they loved very much. Even though Scheinberg had a small kid at home, he continued to make time on a daily basis to engage in the game of poker. He was a frequent participant in the poker tournaments held in the area and was constantly on the lookout for new techniques to better his game.