Researching Thomas Keller

In 2005, he was awarded the three-star rating in the inaugural Michelin Guide for New York City for his restaurant Per Se, and in 2006, he was awarded three stars in the inaugural Michelin Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area for The French Laundry. He is the only American chef to have been awarded simultaneous three-star Michelin ratings for two different restaurants. He currently holds seven Michelin stars total: three at Per Se, three at The French Laundry, and one at Bouchon.

As a student, Keller was a member of the Swiss university teams for Nordic combined skiing and for ski-jumping. However, in rowing, he was not only a champion sculler at Swiss national level, but won the bronze medal in single sculls at the 1950 European Rowing Championships.

Keller was chosen to row at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, but did not do so as his national Olympic Committee chose to boycott the games in protest at the Soviet Union's invasion of Hungary (see 1956 Hungarian Revolution). Two years later, he became president of FISA, following the death of the previous president, Gaston Mullegg. At 34, he was one of the youngest presidents of an international sports federation ever to be elected. Keller always aimed to give priority to athletes' interests, and consistently aimed to minimize the influence of politics on sport.

The Thomas Keller Medal is named after him. It is presented by FISA to recently retired rowers who had had an outstanding international career.

Thomas Keller was married to Dorry Bodmer of Zurich, Switzerland. They had five children: Dominik, Adrian, Bettina, Anne and Barbara Keller.

Keller graduated from Stanford University with a degree in economics in 2002. He began playing poker while at Stanford, having been influenced by the movie Rounders. Like David Williams and Noah Boeken, Keller credits his experience of playing Magic: The Gathering as a helpful factor in his poker career.

In Phoenix, his jump from playing low limits to the biggest high-stakes games happened quickly. One local story is that Keller won so many $100 chips at Casino Arizona that the casino ran out, forcing high limit players to buy chips from him, which he sold from the trunk of his car. Keller has said the story is absurd, but the fact it persists attests to how well Keller did in high limit games during the era.

In December 2003, Keller won the $281,525 first prize in the $2,500 no limit hold'em event of the Five Diamond World Poker Classic, defeating Allen Cunningham in the final heads-up confrontation.

He went on to defeat Martin de Knijff to win a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2004 in the $5,000 no limit hold'em event.

Keller also appeared on the World Poker Tour (WPT) Young Guns of Poker invitational, where he finished 4th. He is also a part of Robert Williamson III's Team America in the Poker Nations Cup.

Keller has been a primary columnist for Card Player Magazine since 2004.

He married his wife Andra on April 24, 2004. Andra gave birth to their first child, Kaylee Keller, in September 2006. They had their second child, Alexander, in late February 2009.

Keller lost over 200 pounds after having gastric bypass surgery.

Keller cashed twice at the 2008 World Series of Poker including finishing in 61st place out of 6,844 entries in the $10,000 buy-in Main Event, earning $115,800.

As of 2011, his total live tournament winnings exceed $1,200,000. His 5 cashes as the WSOP account for $789,127 of those winnings.