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Spotsylvania man cashes in at poker tournament Date published: 7/24/2005
By ADAM HIMMELSBACH Growing up in Las Vegas in the 1960s, Michael Kessler had no trouble getting a seat at the spiciest card game in town. Sure, he was just in grade school, too young to stroll through a smoky casino amid pickpockets and deep pockets. But Kessler found a great home game where the returns were wonderful. It just happened to be at his home. His mother was a blackjack dealer at the Golden Nugget casino and his father a probation officer. Once a week, Kessler and his brother tussled with their parents in a comfy round of poker. The odds were wonderful, because Kessler was gambling with house money--literally. That all changed, though, when he turned 13. "That's when we started playing for real," the Spotsylvania resident said Friday. "If we lost, we lost our allowance." Kessler loved playing cards, all kinds of cards. He played poker and pinochle and hearts and spades. He learned about game odds while other kids learned arithmetic. Last week Kessler returned to Sin City. He mixed all that practice with a tubful of luck, and emerged as the most famous card player this area has ever seen. The 47-year-old financial manager placed 17th in the World Series of Poker's prestigious No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em tournament and won $350,000. Australian Joseph Hachem ultimately pocketed the first prize of $7.5 million. Kessler was one of 5,619 players who submitted the $10,000 entry fee to compete in the grueling nine-day event, which will be broadcast on ESPN starting in October. "When I paid that $10,000, I was pretty much sure it was gone when I did it," said Kessler, who had never played in a tournament before. "The enjoyment for me was going to be being in the same room as a bunch of players I admire. The fact that I ended up cashing out was just gravy." Kessler arrived in Las Vegas on July 6, the night before the event was to start at the Rio casino. Many of his old high school friends still live in the area and work at the resorts, so Kessler called a buddy and wiggled a complimentary room at the Rio.
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