Vegas poker champion always dreamed of getting rich

Michael Binger, who earned his Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University in June 2006, said that since middle school, he had always had plans to get rich. A few weeks ago, his dream came true.

Michael placed third in the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event after second place winner Paul Wasicka and World Champion Jamie Gold. He took him more than $4 million for his efforts in the no-limit Texas hold 'em tournament, a tournament that drew nearly 9,000 entrants, each of whom paid a $10,000 "buy-in" that supplied the $87 million later apportioned to the top 10 percent of players.

Michael said after his dream came true “after winning $1,000 on a good day at Lucky Chances in Colma, I tried a table with higher stakes, I stepped into that and got killed". "I realized there was more to the game than I'd known, so I studied books on poker and played online with the goal of winning back the $10,000 I had lost, and I did so within months.

Today, Binger still has career ambitions as a theoretical physicist while competing in the poker tournaments.