Barny Boatman is a member of the illustrious poker playing group known as “The Hendon Mob.” This group is well-known for their exceptional poker abilities, as well as their team performances and the fact that they developed the most comprehensive poker database in the whole world.

Boatman has achieved success in a number of poker events all around the globe, including the globe Series of Poker, where he won a gold bracelet, and he has also placed in the money in a number of other tournaments. Since the beginning of his career, Boatman has amassed more than $2.8 million in prize money, which places him at position number 16 on England’s All Time Money List in 2015.

Beginnings of a Poker Career

In the year 1956, Barny Boatman was born in London, which is located in England. He left school at a young age in order to go on a journey across the globe, during which he visited well-known cities and countries such as Barcelona, Hong Kong, and Sydney. He gained skills as a computer programmer as well as a bartender while doing part-time jobs along the route to support his travels and cover his living expenses. When he was finally ready to settle down, he discovered a passion in poker that he had previously been unaware of.

Boatman and his brother Ross began their poker careers by practicing at home, and soon the two of them began competing against one another in tournaments held at the casino on Edgware Road. The very first tournament that Boatman ever participated in was a Seven-Card Stud competition, and he ended up winning the event and taking home the main prize of $2,200. Later on, Boatman and his brother decided to take an impromptu road trip to Las Vegas in the early 1990s. While there, they participated in No-Limit Hold’em cash games for three consecutive days, ultimately draining their bankrolls and returning home bankrupt. It would be some time before they made the decision to go to Las Vegas once again.

The Hendon Crime Family

In the beginning, Boatman, his brother, and their friends Joe Beevers and Ram Vaswani participated in weekly private poker games. During these games, they often faced off against other sets of players.
Their group had such strong chemistry that they began to build a reputation for themselves and were known as “The Hendon Mob.” This was due to the fact that they often performed in the neighborhood of Hendon, which is located in the northwestern part of London.

It should not have come as a surprise when Boatman and the group were requested to participate in the new series Late Night Poker, which went on to become one of the most popular game shows in the UK from 1999 to 2002. Their celebrity had spread across London, so it was inevitable that they would be asked to do so.

Their first broadcast team tournament outside of the game show took place in Melbourne, Australia at an event called the Poker Ashes. There, they competed against teams from various countries and won first place after defeating teams from Australia, France, and Ireland. It was really Boatman who really convinced the group to venture outside of their comfort zone and compete in such a significant event. Initially, the group was skeptical about participating in such a significant tournament.

In 2004, the Hendon mob’s first battle in the Ryder Cup of Poker was against Team USA, and they came out on the losing end. It was a tight game that night, but with poker superstars like Phil Ivey and Chris Ferguson on the other side, they were unable to pull out the victory and take the pot.

Around this same time, Prima Poker made a proposal to the Hendon Mob to become their sponsor in exchange for a grand total of $2 million dollars worth of tournament buy-in fees. Boatman encouraged the team to take the offer, despite the fact that one of the terms of their contract required them to participate in online poker at PrimaPoker.com, which was uncharted ground for every member of the group.

After their previous agreement came to an end, they were promptly hired by Full Tilt Poker and remained loyal to them until 2011, when their firm was suspected of engaging in fraudulent activity, which caused their clients to lose tens of millions of dollars. Since then, they have been working for another online poker site. After committing their allegiance to Genting Poker right away, the team went on to sign a deal with the company for the next two years.