Hedge Fund Brevan Howard Hires Greek Poker Player

Brevan Howard, one of the U.K.’s largest hedge funds, has hired Alexios Zervos, a former professional poker player, to join its London office. That he hails from Greece, given the current macro-environment, will surely be an added bonus.

Mr. Zervos confirmed to Moneybeat that he was a professional poker player, but declined to comment further. A spokesman from Brevan Howard declined to comment on what Mr. Zervos will focus on.

Brevan Howard currently has around $27 billion under management. Last year proved tough for its flagship fund as it posted its first ever yearly loss. The fund was up 2.7% in the first five months of this year, according to a recent investor letter.

Mr. Zervos is currently 18 in Greece All Time Money list, and in 3,234 in the Global Poker Index Ranking. He came 55 in the 2014 World Series, collecting $124,447.

Hedge funds and poker players are common bed-fellows. Perhaps most well-known is David Einhorn, founder of Greenlight Capital, who is a keen player and past competitor at the World Series of Poker. Others include Pine River Investments’ Steve Kuhn, Ariel Investments’ John Rogers, and Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates.

Steve Cohen, founder of SAC Capital, once told the Wall Street Journal that poker “taught me how to take risks.” The hedge fund, since renamed Point72 Asset Management, was at the center of one of Wall Street’s biggest insider-trading investigations.

The two disciplines are not always mutually compatible. One hedge fund cum-poker player was forced to liquidate his fund, after a $850 million bet on gold futures went south.

-- additional reporting by Laurence Fletcher