There is something to be said about winning a major poker tournament in your home country, with the booming chants of the fans cheering you on as it gets down to the wire. That is exactly the scenario that hometown boy Oliver Speidel was in yesterday at the Aussie Millions. He ended up taking down first prize for a total of $1.6 million dollars.
The Aussie Millions Poker Championship, held at the famous Crown Casino is a premier poker tournament on the calendar, bringing the biggest names in poker to compete in the land down under. After 5 days of play in the main event and a total of 658 registrations finally boiled down to an intense and drawn out heads-up match between 2nd place finisher Kenneth Wong, and the aforementioned Oliver Speidel. Wong took home just over $1 million dollars for his 2nd place efforts.
You would think that a young guy like Speidel might take a big chunk of that money and blow it on a new car or something extravagant, however, not all young professional poker players are also former risk management managers. His previous career before he started travelling and playing poker professionally was in risk management, so he knows how to handle his money like a pro. At such a young age, that’s obviously an enviable trait to have, not to mention a rare one.
There is no telling what lies in the future for Oliver Speidel, who is looking to become a big name in poker himself. The young former risk management expert knows that just one big score won’t do it, and that he needs to remain consistent in his efforts. As for now, he is still soaking it all in and realizing what a big win like this really means to his life, exclaiming only that he is feeling “‘exhilaration and disbelief”.
There was no extravagant bottle popping going on last night like you would expect in a town such as Las Vegas, he went home and had a few beers with his friends, winning a few hundred dollars off them – playing poker.
If you want to get in on these live and televised poker tournaments yourself, the easiest way would be to join Pokerstars.com as they have satellites leading to these offline events on their site every day!
Comments are closed.