On October 7, 2023, the world was rocked when Hamas militants initiated a surprise invasion of Israel in which it has been reported in excess of 1,200 people were killed. Of those, at least 260 were murdered at the Tribe of Nova music festival, which had drawn more than 3,500 young listening to electronic music to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
PokerNews recently learned that Omri Ram, a poker player and coach in the Israeli Poker Academy from 2017-19, was among those murdered at the music festival. He was 28 years old.
Born on April 8. 1995, Ram, who was known as an exploitative poker player and played online at GGPoker as “laolalo”, finished in sixth place in the 2020 GGPoker WSOP Online Super Circuit Event #15: Monster Stack $500K GTD for $21,989.
“He had a love for the game and for teaching it,” an acquaintance of Ram told PokerNews. “He also loved surfing and music festivals.”
The oldest of three siblings with brothers Tomer and Eyal, Ram recently finished a degree in economics.
In an interview with an Israeli news site, Omri’s father, Menashe Ram, said the following:
“Omri is our eldest son and also our eldest grandson. He was a charming boy whose most striking feature is that he loved everyone, and everyone loved him. He spread light, love and joy and help to friends, and there was a whole world … He just graduated with a degree in business administration and economics. A boy who was always smiling. He was killed along with two of his friends. We were in contact with him since the morning and at about 10:30 the connection was lost. After a few hours we received the terrible message.”
His mother also wrote a eulogy on social media that in part read:
How many experiences did you go through,
How many friends did you collect,
In recent days we’ve been getting lots of messages.
About people you met,
That touched their soul,
That you were happy, that you laughed, that you listened.
That’s you, man of the people
A genuine soul with a huge smile.
A funeral for Omri was held on October 10. PokerNews offers its condolences to the friends and family of Omri Ram.
Executive Editor U.S.
Executive Editor US, PokerNews Podcast co-host & 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.