World Series win comes with plenty of pitfalls

By Bob Harkins, MSNBC.com
Updated July 18, 9 p.m. ET

It doesn’t take long hanging out around poker players before you start to hear all the wild stories.

A staring contest for $2,000. A vegetarian eating a cheeseburger to win $10,000. A former champion attempting to stand in the ocean for 18 hours on a $50,000 dare.

You hear the stories and you laugh, but deep inside you know they’re probably true. After all, this is Las Vegas, and this is the world of poker. (Incidentally, each of the above wagers has been documented.)

But you also have to wonder about these people and how their minds work. Why can’t they just take their poker winnings and enjoy their success? Why risk losing some of it on silly sidebets, or even all of it in other gambling pursuits?

Early Wednesday morning Jerry Yang joined the elite of the poker world, combining a wonderful combination of luck and skill to win the World Series of Poker’s main event. He earned himself $8.25 million, instant celebrity and -- potentially -- a road full of potholes in his future.

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“I don’t think I’ve changed significantly,” says Raymer, who has more than $5.7 million in career WSOP earnings. “I think you’re going to like me or dislike me just the same now vs. then. But I could be wrong and maybe I’m a little different and just don’t realize it.”

Raymer said it was his sudden celebrity, not the money, that was most difficult to deal with, particularly at the poker table. Fans wanted to know why he didn’t wear his trademark holographic sunglasses everywhere he went. Fellow players would ask for his autograph after eliminating him from a tournament. And suddenly, amateurs were targeting him with bluffs, just so they would have a story to tell their friends at home.

“They’ll even say ‘I just wanted to bluff you one time,’” Raymer says. “So not only do they win the money from you, they’re not going to make stupid bluffs in the future because now they’ve got their story. So that’s the downside.”

But according to Hachem, it is former amateurs like Raymer, Moneymaker, Varkonyi and Gold who have helped transform the game, inspiring others from normal walks of life to enter the playing ranks, and marginalizing the effect of poker’s seedier element.

“If you look back at the last four or five (champions), we’re not gamblers,” he says. “We’re poker players who won the World Series, and our family’s interest is more important. That’s the common theme.

“It’s great for poker, it’s great for us. If we get some degenerate who wins it and then goes and blows it all, it’s not gonna be real good.”

Slide show Card sharks Take a visual tour of the sights at the World Series of Poker’s main event. more photos

Hachem, a former chiropractor who had to give up his practice due to a blood disorder in his hands, has some strong advice for Yang, who took down this year's $8.25 million grand prize. He advises being patient. Take your time. Don’t buy anything right away. Put the money in a bank and let it sit while you come up with a plan.

“It’s all about ownership,” he says. “If you lock it up in a bank for six months, then you’ve got ownership of it, and it’s hard to just blow it away.”

And if all else fails, you can always place a call to Varkonyi for investment advice.

Give us your take on the World Series of Poker   Go to discussion board

“I’m actually marketing a fund of hedge funds that has a fantastic risk-return profile, which we’ve invested in for many years,” he says, explaining that he puts a very limited amount of his money into poker. “We’ve had a large amount of our personal wealth grow over the years by investing in this fund.”

Varkonyi’s wife Olga, herself a poker player, puts her husband’s words into even simpler terms.

“Come to Bob,” she says with a laugh.

It sounds like smart advice. And a whole lot safer than standing in the ocean for 18 hours.

© 2007 MSNBC Interactive

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