Name: Johan Guilbert
Date of birth: April 19, 1989
Place of birth: Sarreguemines en Moselle
Total Live Tournament Winnings: $4,216,413 (May 2024)
From a young age, little Johan showed a great interest in strategy games, particularly chess and Magic cards. He mentioned on his X account that he had an Elo rating of 1560 in chess at the age of 9 and was vice-champion of Lorraine in the same game in 1999.
After obtaining his baccalaureate in literature, to finance his studies, Johan secured a part-time fixed-term contract at Goom Radio. At that time, his ambition was to become a radio host. He was particularly passionate about talk shows, open mic shows, and prank calls, activities he found very amusing.
Although he ultimately did not break through as a radio host, this experience greatly helped him develop his oral communication skills, a skill he was able to leverage a few years later during his live streams on Twitch and in his YouTube videos (he created his YouTube channel in 2006, and it was then that he chose the pseudonym YoH ViraL).
At the age of 20, Johan discovered poker, which was beginning to gain popularity in France. He first played with his friends and then discovered the Parisian gaming circles.
He eventually moved to Italy and then Malta, a country that offered many advantages in terms of taxation. In 2012, he joined a poker-focused house and participated in live tournaments in Europe. However, he made the mistake of playing stakes too high relative to his bankroll and nearly went broke several times.
Despite these chaotic beginnings, YoH persisted and scoured the cash game tables, both online and live in Las Vegas. After three years of effort, he announced that he had his first six-figure profit month in 2015.
That same year, he was recruited by the show "La Maison du Bluff" on NRJ12 as a coach which increased his visibility. He simultaneously developed his social networks, including his YouTube channel, his Twitch channel, and his coaching site: pokerpro.fr.
Accompanied by professional players specialized in tournaments and cash games, YoH ViraL sells training programs to help players improve and "become truly winning at poker."
Finally, in 2021, while his streams on Twitch still gathered thousands of viewers, YoH ViraL decided to stop playing online poker to focus solely on his career as a live tournament and cash game player. Although he no longer streams on Twitch, he continues to regularly post videos of his games in casinos around the world on his YouTube channel.
YoH ViraL has achieved many great performances in renowned tournaments. His greatest achievement is a second place in a WSOPE (World Series of Poker Europe) tournament in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, for a prize of nearly $900,000 in December 2021.
A video recounting the end of the tournament, especially the final table, is available on his YouTube channel:
YoH ViraL has not yet won a WSOP bracelet, which he considers one of his main goals today.
Today, YoH ViraL spends most of his time between Dubai and Malta when he is not traveling around the world to play poker tournaments.
It is difficult to evaluate YoH ViraL's fortune because sites that provide statistics on poker players, such as The Hendon Mob give gross winnings (i.e., they do not take into account tournament entry costs). These gross live tournament winnings amount to $4,216,413 in May 2024.
In addition, there are the gains he may have made playing online poker for nearly 10 years and the income from his training site pokerpro.fr. Therefore, his fortune can be estimated to be between 5 and 10 million euros.
In the past, he invested part of this money in cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, but today he says he only invests in gold and the S&P 500.
Passionate and ambitious, he openly shares his successes and luxurious lifestyle on social media, sparking both admiration and criticism. His media visibility and the way he showcases his financial success can be perceived as ostentatious or provocative, especially by those who prefer a more discreet approach to personal success.
When he celebrates his birthday, YoH ViRal doesn't do things halfway...
And you, what do you think of YoH ViRal? Do you admire his career and achievements?
