Poker Stories: Upeshka De Silva

Upeshka De Silva, known as Pesh, didn't really start concentrating on the live tournament circuit until 2013, but in the few years since he's still managed to win two World Series of Poker bracelets while banking nearly $2 million in earnings. De Silva's first bracelet came in a 2015 $1,500 no-limit hold'em event for $424,577. His second bracelet win happened just last summer, when he took down the $3,000 shootout event for $229,923. De Silva also made a deep run in the 2015 main event and final tabled the WPT Legends of Poker main event in 2016 for $198,720. Highlights from this interview include a brief stint in Sri Lanka, growing up with Supermom, playing in some secret Texas Texas hold'em games, getting dad bad beat apologies, a stable of unstable horses, filling up two wrists, a battle with ego, big fields vs. big buy-ins, hero calling Fedor, watching $100 turn into $45,000 in 15 minutes, the isolation of being a poker pro, and an aversion to country music.