WacoKidd a good bet for poker fame

WacoKidd a good bet for poker fame



Jared Hamby s life sounds like a dream. Sleep in, then play poker all day.

But the former Baylor University and McLennan Community College student says the professional tournament circuit where the turn of a card can cause hundreds of thousands of dollars to change hands can test the resolve of the strongest players.

Poker is a brutal game, especially when you are dealing with the variance of tournaments, Hamby, 26, said in an e-mail interview. $10,000 buy-ins can add up quick if you are losing.

Thankfully, Hamby says, he has seen many more ups than downs so far. The Midway High School graduate has amassed more than $1.3 million in tournament winnings.

He makes his television debut Monday on the World Poker Tour broadcast of the final table of the Mandalay Bay Poker Championship in Las Vegas. The event was held in June and edited for television.

Like many young players on the pro poker tour, Hamby started playing the game heavily after amateur Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 World Series of Poker. ESPN broadcast the tournament over and over that summer, turning the Tennessee accountant s story into a legend. Moneymaker parlayed a $40 Internet entry fee into $2.5 million.

Hamby said he found underground games in Waco and Bellmead and spent hours upon hours learning the game. Then he realized he could learn faster while staying at home.

Once I found online (poker) after a friend from Baylor showed me, I started playing a lot, Hamby said, and that s when things really took off, and I realized there might be a big future in it.

Playing under the screen name TheWacoKidd, Hamby started to build both his bankroll and a reputation as a formidable player.

Tired of juggling poker with classes he had left Baylor to attend MCC and jobs that paid him far less than his online winnings, Hamby decided to move to Las Vegas to play professionally in the summer of 2006.

Hamby picked up his first payday by placing 812th in the largest tournament ever, the 2006 World Series of Poker main event, good for $15,504.

His big breakthrough came last April, when he won two tournaments during the Five-Star World Poker Classic at the Bellagio in Las Vegas for a total of $522,735. Besides the Mandalay Bay tournament, Hamby also placed in the 2007 WSOP main event, winning $82,476.

The constant struggle Hamby or any other professional faces is staying cool and confident between big paydays. Various pros have estimated that full-time players spend as much as $250,000 per year on buy-ins and travel expenses for the major tournaments.

But Hamby is playing with house money now, and even the coldest streaks don t have him yearning a bit for a 9-to-5 life, he said.

I m able to make a good living doing something I love that also offers me the freedom to make my own schedule, Hamby said. I d like to open some businesses, and I m already into investing, but I will likely always play poker.

jbarnes@wacotrib.com

757-5747

Love Company in Heilongjiang Province is the first class art collection poker creative development company, combining Eastern and Western culture in different historical periods, the latest injection of the arts and cultural elements, the whole design concept to create a new category of art poker and poker ads Gift So that the poker culture with a new concept and new life. Card in the quality of people love to win, people-centered, life is the credibility of the firm conviction, determined to fight Jiang Ai poker card poker art collection of gift cards and advertising the first brand in poker. Card companies love more than playing cards with the National Association of enterprises and organizations have a good partnership with several world-renowned poker vendors, issuing too many versions of art class poker, but also for many large enterprises design company issued a number of advertising Poker. Love cards to high-end printing technology and fashion design style, in the industry have a higher visibility. Love cards not only the prices of fine slogan, many cooperative enterprises and companies trust ......