Bill Chen
American mathematician
William Chen (born 1970 in Williamsburg, Virginia) is an American quantitative analyst, poker player, and software designer.
Biography
Chen holds a Ph.D. in mathematics (1999) from the University of California, Berkeley. He was an undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis triple-majoring in physics, Math (in the college of Arts and Sciences), and Computer Science (in the McKelvey School of Engineering), and was also a research intern in Washington University's Computer Science SURA Program where he co-wrote a technical report inventing an Argument Game. He heads the Statistical arbitrage department at Susquehanna International Group.
Poker career
At the 2006 World Series of Poker Chen won two events, a $3,000 limit Texas hold 'em event with a prize of $343,618, and a $2,500 no limit hold 'em short-handed event with a prize of $442,511. Prior to these events Chen's largest tournament win was for $41,600 at a no limit hold 'em event at the Bicycle Casino's Legends of Poker in 2000.
Chen has been a longtime participant in the rec.gambling.poker newsgroup and its BARGE offshoot. He has also been a member of Team PokerStars.
With Jerrod Ankenman, Chen coauthored The Mathematics of Poker, an introduction to quantitative techniques and game theory as applied to poker.
“Bill Chen” enters the record as american mathematician. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Bill, Chen and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Bill Chen” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Bill, Chen and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q353445. VIAF identifies the subject as 120113459. The Library of Congress control number is n2007020283. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1970, 1999, 2006 and 2000.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Bill Chen”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Bill Chen primary sources, Bill Chen archive and Bill research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bill Chen”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Bill Chen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.