Have you seen the movie about the ex-con that got out of prison, went into business, and then became a successful poker player? Probably not, because the movie hasn’t been made yet, but if it was, it would be based on the real life story of David “DevilFish” Ulliott.

David Ulliott dropped out of high school at 16 and started playing cards in local casinos. He was also part of a group of men that went and robbed safes at various businesses. Eventually Police caught one of the men committing the robberies. Ulliott was named as an accomplice and he went to prison for nine months. After getting out, he was later arrested for armed robbery and public fighting and went to prison for another 18 months.

After getting out of prison, Ulliott straightened his life out and opened a pawn shop that later was converted into a jewelry business. During his time as a businessman, Ulliott was playing poker, but eventually the games dried up and he was outright banned from card rooms because nobody wanted to play with him.

Eventually Ulliott went on to play in professional poker tournaments, where he had success at both the World Series of Poker and on the World Poker Tour. Ulliott won his first bracelet in 1997 when he won the $2,000 Pot Limit Holdem event and $180,310. He nearly won the $3,000 Pot Limit Holdem event a year later but finished 2nd. He would also have two runner-up finishes in the 2001 WSOP, just missing out on the $2,000 Pot Limit Holdem Bracelet and the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha bracelet.

Ulliotts biggest win on the World Poker Tour came at the 2003 World Poker Open in Tunica, MS. He was able to take down the event for his first WPT title and $589,175. His next biggest win was actually his largest score in a poker tournament to date. He finished 3rd at the World Poker Classic in 2007 for $674,500.

In addition to his WSOP and WPT success, Ulliott has many other large wins in poker tournaments around the world. He has won over $5.28 Million in live tournaments. This puts him 34th all-time in career earnings. His win in the first series of Late Night Poker prompted the network to continue to air the show, mainly in part to Ulliott’s prescience. At one point, Ulliott was sponsored by UltimateBet.com and has recently started up his own site DevilFishPoker.com. He was banned from all Fox Sport Net poker events after flashing an advertisement of his site in his jacket after being forbidden to do so by the network.

Ulliott still owns his jewelry business back in Hull England. He has recently tried to change his image. He used to come to the table with his hair slicked back and wearing sunglasses. He decided to change when he noticed a lot of people were looking like him. He still wears his signature Devil Fish brass knuckles at the table.

David Ulliott has made quite a name for himself in the poker world. He came up from criminal roots to become a businessman and a fearsome poker player. If you sit at a table and the “Devil Fish” decide to sit down with you, you may want to find yourself a new game.