![brian rust brian rust](http://brianrust.weebly.com/uploads/7/8/9/1/7891053/840702_orig.jpg)
While in Rio de Janeiro near the end of the trip, Brian met Juliana Karla Carlos da Silva while out drinking. In January 2010, Laak convinced Brian to travel to Brazil with him. By late 2009, Andrew, Antonio, Brian, and Keith along with Dan Fleyshman and Dan Bilzerian decided to form Victory Poker-a poker website that ultimately shut down after Black Friday. He quickly met and became good friends with some other poker players in Las Vegas, notably Keith Gipson, Andrew Robl, Antonio Esfandiari, and Phil Laak.
![brian rust brian rust](http://brianrust.co.uk/images/portfolio/02-3rd-Sector-04.jpg)
Then in mid-2008, he bought his first place at Panorama Towers-a highrise where many other poker players live. After making numerous trips where he stayed at Bellagio, sometimes for over 25 days in a month, he finally decided to rent a place in Henderson and move out to Vegas permanently in 2007. He eventually chose Las Vegas over Los Angeles. Soon he was back living in Poway, playing online and making regular trips to Commerce Casino & Las Vegas to play live. In the summer of 2005, he left the Bay Area and took his first shot at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Early personal life and poker career įor the next few months, Brian continued to live in the Palo Alto area playing poker both live and online. By 2004, he had dropped out of school to pursue a career in poker. Rast made $20,000 his first summer playing. Within five weeks, Rast had quit his temp job to focus full time on poker for the remainder of the summer. He took a temp job and used that money to fund his poker habit, playing online and live at Barona Casino. Rast started buying and reading as many poker books as he could. That summer Brian went home to Poway determined to learn how to play poker and make some money. Brian always loved strategic games, and although being familiar with poker dating back to high school, Brian started playing weekly at the Stanford Poker Club (founded by his friend Mike Asmar) in the spring of 2003.
![brian rust brian rust](http://brianrust.co.uk/images/portfolio/02-Publishing-03.jpg)
Rast attended Poway High School where he became the Class of 2000 valedictorian, earning his way to Stanford University.