Roger Sippl obit

Roger Sippl, Informix Founder and High Stakes Poker Player, Dies at 71

 

He was not on the list.

Roger Sippl, the software entrepreneur who founded Informix and became one of the best-known amateurs in high-stakes poker, has died at 71. Andrew Robl shared the news on X, remembering him as a devoted husband, father, and founder who simply loved the game. Phil Hellmuth, who played with Sippl for two decades, also paid tribute.

From Wausau to Berkeley

Sippl was born on February 22, 1955, and grew up in Wausau, Wisconsin, the sixth of seven children. Computing ran in the family, as his father, Charles Sippl Jr., wrote the first computer dictionary in 1963. Sippl started out pre-med at UC Irvine before transferring to UC Berkeley, where he studied biochemistry, immunology, and computer science and earned his degree in 1977.

At Berkeley, he was diagnosed with Stage IIIB Hodgkin’s lymphoma and went through surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Hellmuth wrote that doctors told Sippl at 19 he had “no chance” of living past 21. He went on to live relapse-free and later chaired the Stanford Cancer Council for more than 10 years.

Three Companies, Three IPOs

Sippl founded Relational Database Systems in 1980 at the age of 24. The company became Informix, and he ran it as CEO for 10 years, taking it public in 1986. He then co-founded Vantive, chairing its board from 1990 to 1998, and founded Visigenic in 1993. All three went public, earning him the “Golden Hat Trick Award” for three Silicon Valley IPOs.

The Wall Street Journal described him as a serial entrepreneur in 2012, and he kept building and investing through Sippl Macdonald Ventures and later Elastic Intelligence. Away from software, Sippl wrote poetry and published it in more than 30 literary journals, including the medical journals JAMA Oncology and CHEST. He and his wife, Liz, raised three children and made their home in Woodside, California.

Runner-Up in the Bahamas

Sippl’s biggest moment on the felt came at the 2015 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. He reached the final table of the $100,000 Super High Roller as chip leader, then outlasted a lineup featuring Bryn Kenney, Sorel Mizzi, Christoph Vogelsang, Sam Greenwood, Andrew Robl, and Scott Seiver. Steve O’Dwyer beat him heads-up, and second place delivered the biggest cash of his career.

He nearly added a World Series of Poker bracelet the following summer, finishing third out of 4,499 entrants in the 2016 $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship. His Hendon Mob profile shows 22 live cashes worth $3,821,862, and these three results stand out among them.

Roger Sippl’s Top Live Tournament Results

Year     Event   Finish  Prize

2015    PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100,000 Super High Roller          2nd      $1,344,420

2016    WSOP $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship     3rd       $245,389

2022    PokerGO Cup $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em    7th       $43,000

Cash Games and Television

Sippl was just as comfortable in big cash games. TV audiences saw him on Poker Night in America, where he tangled with Hellmuth in a cash game at the Choctaw Casino, and he later took a seat on the 10th season of High Stakes Poker.

Off camera, he was a regular in the Silicon Valley and Los Angeles tech home games, and he kept competing into his late 60s. His most recent live cash came at the 2023 World Series of Poker.

Tributes From Robl and Hellmuth

Robl, who sat at that 2015 final table with Sippl, said he had never heard a bad word about him from any regular he’d played with. He described a true gentleman who never got upset and never had a bad time at the table.

Hellmuth knew him from the private games they shared over the past 20 years and called him a “colorful character” and a “fearless businessman.” He also pointed to what mattered most to Sippl. “He talked about his family at every opportunity,” Hellmuth wrote.

Funeral and memorial details have not yet been made public.