GETTING TO KNOW ... Brian Abramson

Brian Abramson is a criminal defense attorney in private practice in Westland. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Michigan State University, and a law degree from Detroit Mercy Law.

Abramson started his legal career with the law firm of Vandeveer Garzia. He went on to partner in 2000 with Nevin Rose until Nevin’s semi-retirement of 2014, when Abramson went solo. He is grateful for the professional services of his full time assistant of eight years, Lisa Raymore. Abramson enjoys playing and viewing most sports and loves to travel the world.  He makes an annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas to play tournament poker— including cashing in at a World Series of Poker event in 2013.


By Jo Mathis
Legal News

Residence: Farmington Hills.

Favorite local hangouts? All professional, local sport venues, and the MGM and Greektown poker rooms.

Favorite websites? freep.com, chase.com, all sites related to professional and amateur poker.

What is your most treasured material possession? My home.

What is your happiest childhood memory? Pitching a complete-game one-hitter to win the championship game for my Little League team.

What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received? “Thank you for being by my side to get me through these scary times.” (Related to allegations of criminal wrongdoing).

What would surprise people about your job? How much waiting around in court that happens, and all the administrative work there is in running a solo law firm.

What do you wish someone would invent? Faster jet airplanes.

What has been your favorite year so far? They are all great, but 2001 was tops because that was the year of birth of my triplets — two daughters and a son, the greatest joys and loves of my life.

Favorite vacation spot? Southeast Asia in general — and specifically anywhere in Thailand.

What is your most typical mood? Upbeat and optimistic.

If you could have witnessed any event in history, what would it be? Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

What were you doing in your last selfie? Having dinner with my cousin in New Orleans.

What question do you most often ask yourself? “Why not?”

If you could trade places with someone for a day, who would that be? (Professional poker player) Phil Ivey.

What’s the most awe-inspiring place you’ve ever been? Glacier National Park, Montana.

What has been your proudest moment as a lawyer? The jury acquittal of a client accused of domestic violence with the backdrop of a divorce and a minor child. A conviction could have led to disastrous consequences as to custody of the child.

What is the best advice you ever received? Deferred gratification and hard work pay big dividends.

What is one thing you would like to learn to do? Play poker professionally.

What is your favorite game of poker, and what are your winning tips? No Limit Texas Hold’em. So-called purists complain the game has too many novices and bad players — but they are how I run deep and make money in tournament poker.

The key to success is recognizing strengths and weaknesses of opponents.

Tournament poker affords time to see who is better than you and who is not.

When good players are in pots — especially large ones — I often fold. When I see good players out of pots and the bad players in, I build my chip stacks.

When running deep into a tournament, eventually good players have to be faced — that is exciting.

Usually, by the time of poker player winnowing, the money has been reached. A player “cashed,” in poker terminology. 

And I only get better playing the better players. So fun.