Charlie Carrel, born in 1993, is one of the most successful poker players of his generation. Charlie Carrel, poker extraordinaire, is from the Channel Islands, and he’s absolutely dominated the online poker circuit, accumulating almost $10,000,000 in winnings from tournaments alone. While he’s been a controversial figure from the start, Carrel is one of the world’s biggest poker talents, and today, we’re going to tell you all about him.
Charlie Carrel Poker
Charlie Carrel – poker star from the Channel Islands – has attracted attention pretty much from day one. While some have questioned his playing abilities, his results speak for themselves. He also brings a very unique story to the table. Once a drug addict, Carrel turned his life around and became one of the most successful poker players of his era. Learn all about him here on this page!
Charlie Carrel: Online Poker Genius?
Today, Carrel is a self-made millionaire; however, it wasn’t always this way. When Charlie Carrel began playing online poker, he deposited just $12 into his online poker account. It took him around two years to score his first live cash, but his online earnings were phenomenal, and he took the online poker circuit by storm.
Background and Early Life
Charlie Carrel – Charles Francis Carrel, in full – was born on the 7th of November, 1993, in St. Brelade, Jersey, in the Channel Islands. When he was young, Carrel moved with his family to central London; this ended up being his base, and was the city he grew up in.
Carrel didn’t have the easiest of starts in life, and it’s his backstory that so many find inspiring. Diagnosed with partial autism, Carrel often retells stories of how he was bullied at school and other social occasions. As a result of this bullying, he developed poor social skills, and learned to hide his emotions – a trait that would go on to serve him well at the poker table.
After turning 19, Carrel opened a casino account and made a deposit of £10 (around $12.) This was the only deposit he ever needed to make to build his bankroll; he never went bust, and he’s never looked back!
Once he started to get a taste for winning, Carrel decided the city life wasn’t for him, and moved back to Jersey to live with his grandmother. There, he spent up to 16 hours every day practicing poker. In the two short years since turning 18, Carrel had played in some of the biggest poker tournaments in Europe, and success was starting to earn him some serious cash.
Professional Poker Career
Carrel’s poker career took time to develop, despite him being a winning player from the start. His first live tournament cash came in April 2014, when he finished 21st in a €990 EPT event in San Remo. He ended up taking away just €2,500 as a result. Later that year, Carrel also cashed in the €5,300 EPT Main Event in Barcelona, walking away with €8,500.
It was in November of that year, however, that he started to really see results. His first major breakthrough came when he won the £2,125 GUKPT London Grand Finale tournament, taking away £108,625 in the process. The following year, Carrel traveled around the world, playing live tournaments in Spain, Monte Carlo, Malta, and the Caribbean.
He achieved another major breakthrough in March 2015 when he came 5th in the €10,300 High-Roller at EPT Malta for €183,800, and just two months later, he hit his first 7-figure payday, winning the 8-handed €25,500 High-Roller at the EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final event. Doing so earned him slightly over €1,114,000 in cash, and it was also his first EPT title.
Since 2015, Carrel has enjoyed some major wins. For example, in 2017 he played in the PokerStars Championship in The Bahamas, costing $100,000 to enter. He ended up winning the tournament, walking away with $1,192,000. Later that year he also enjoyed his first WSOP cash, coming third in the $10,000 Heads-Up Championship, and 9th in the $111,111 High-Roller OneDrop WSOP tournament.
Carrel has always focused on poker; he’s never branched out to other online casino games. However, if you’re interested in playing other casino table games like roulette and blackjack, it’s vital to know the ins and outs of the games to maximize your chances of winning. Find out all you need to know about online blackjack in our handy blackjack guide!
Carrel’s Net Worth
To date, Carrel has won over $9.6 million in live tournament earnings, and that doesn’t include his cash game and online winnings. However, it’s notoriously difficult to estimate a poker player’s net worth. For one, poker players spend a lot of money actually buying into events, and Carrel has played many high-stakes events throughout his career. Secondly, without knowing the ins and outs of a player’s online gameplay, you simply don’t know how much they’ve actually won or lost.
However, most reputable poker tracking websites put Carrel’s net worth at around $5 million. That sounds reasonable, although it should also be noted that Carrel says he spends a lot of money simply traveling around and living.
Below, we’re going to look at some of Carrel’s most notable live tournament wins.
| EVENT DETAILS | PRIZE |
|---|---|
| £50,000 No-Limit Hold’em, London, 2019 | $1,601,853 |
| €25,000 + €500 No-Limit Hold’em, Monte Carlo, 2015 | $1,241,682 |
| $98,000 + $2,000 NLHE PokerStars Championship Super High Roller, Bahamas, 2017 | $1,191,900 |
| $25,000+$500 NLHE WPT Super High Roller, WPT Online Championship, 2020 | $600,250 |
| €48,500 + €1,500 NLHE Super High Roller, Prague, EPT, 2016 | $565,116 |
| €25,000 NLHE Event #34, Barcelona EPT Tour, 2019 | $533,212 |
Controversies and Feuds
Ever since Charlie Carrel the poker extraordinaire from the Channel Islands entered the poker world, controversies and feuds have followed him. One of the biggest criticisms he faced was whether or not he was actually competent as a poker player. Of course, looking at his tournament results, it’s impossible to argue otherwise, but it’s true that his playing style during tournament poker is incredibly volatile, risky, and, sometimes, emotion-driven. This means he endures a lot more variance than other players, which is seen in his results.
One of the best poker players in the world, Doug Polk, actively dissected Carrel’s game to look at his abilities in depth. The thing is, Carrel never pretended that he learned poker in a conventional manner; as a result, some of the moves he makes may look unnatural and strange, but, again, you simply can’t argue with his results.
Still, Polk’s videos weren’t kind, and they were heavily critical of Carrel’s game. Interestingly, the poker community took Polk’s side, and a strange dislike for Carrel emerged within the poker community, for no reason other than this playing style.
Carrel didn’t help himself, however. On his official Twitter account, he posted Tweets indicating that society is “too quick to judge child molesters” and that we should all try to be more sympathetic toward such people. This gave Polk all the ammunition he needed, and even more of the community started developing a negative opinion of Carrel.
However, since then, Carrel appears to have learned his lesson. He’s largely kept away from social media in recent years, although some of his controversial Tweets and posts still generate quite a discussion from time to time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Charlie Carrel is the top poker player from the Channel Islands, there’s no disputing that. On this page, we’ve shown you why he’s become such a major player in the poker world, alongside some of his biggest achievements. Below, we’re going to answer a few additional questions.
When did Carrel start playing poker?
Carrel’s poker career began when he was aged just eight years old. Back then, he started to learn how to play cards. However, it wasn’t until his 18th birthday that he deposited money into an online poker account and started to play for real money.
When was Carrel’s first notable tournament cash?
Since beginning to play poker, Carrel has enjoyed several impressive tournament cashes. However, his first notable tournament cash came in April 2014 when he came 21st in an EPT event taking place in San Remo. The event’s buy-in was €990, and he won just shy of €2,500.
What is the net worth of Charlie Carrel?
Estimations about the net worth of Charlie Carrel are just that: estimations. It’s notoriously difficult to give accurate figures about poker players’ net worths as private and VIP cash games often make a significant portion of their total income. However, many believe that Carrel is worth in the region of $5 million.
Does Carrel have any controversies?
Charlie Carrel has had a couple of controversies throughout his career. Most notably, he clashed with Doug Polk in the past. He’s also Tweeted out some pretty controversial Tweets, which have landed him in hot water with the poker community.
Does Carrel play online or offline poker?
Carrel plays both online and offline poker. While he made his early fame by playing live tournaments, he can now be found regularly playing high-stakes cash games online, often against some of the most formidable opponents in the world.
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