West High grad wins nearly $1.6 million

Some of the biggest names in poker were at the final table on Wednesday in one of the major tournaments on the World Poker Tour. They were there to win the 2006 Legends of Poker championship at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, Calif. Most of them with millions in winnings in their bank accounts.

Then there was Pelton, a 29-year-old business systems analyst for an insurance company from Newport Beach, Calif., with less than $23,000 in winnings from eight WPT tournaments in three years.

But, Pelton wasn't intimidated playing with them. He felt that he had advantage because he knew how they played but they didn’t know him. This let him win the nearly $1.6 million first prize along with $25,000 seat for the upcoming WPT championship.

Now, no longer the former Waterloo resident will be able to sit down at a poker table and play in relative obscurity. But, in the mean time, Pelton is savoring his victory. "It feels pretty good. It took a half-hour to get it deposited," Pelton said.

Pelton, who left Waterloo after graduation to study engineering at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, Calif, started playing with relatively small pots, with friends at college and then he eventually started playing poker on the Internet. Top prizes for many online tournaments happen to be the entry fees and transportation costs to major tournaments for this new poker champion.