Anthony Gregg made the headlines in the poker community this weekend; when he went on to win $4.8 million during the World Series of Poker. Those who do not know Gregg, might think how lucky he is but the truth is Gregg is a professional poker player who has been practising from the time he was a kid. Gregg grew up playing cards with some of the popular games such as Magic: The Gathering.
The skills and strategy that he picked up over the years, served him well at the WSOP when he was playing for $4.8 million dollars. With this win, Gregg has now made a name for himself by getting his first WSOP bracelet and also beating a number of other competitive professional poker players. Gregg had stiff competition but he went on to win the $111,111 buy-in “High Roller” event which was held on the 29th of June.
In a statement, Gregg said
I started playing in late 2002. Like many poker players, I used to play Magic: The Gathering when I was a kid, and I sort of graduated into poker. I started having a moderate amount of success during my senior year in high school, and didn’t have that much desire for college. So I decided to keep playing poker while I figured out what I wanted to do. I knew I’d be able to make good money doing it, but never imagined it would get to the level it did.
Gregg was pitted against some big names in the industry, including the defending champion Antonio Esfandiari who took 4th place at the event. Some of the other players included Chris Klodnicki, Nick Shulman and Bill Perkins. In the end, Gregg walked away with the first place, followed by Chris Klodnicki in second place who won $2,985,495 and in third place came Bill Perkins who received $1,965,163.
Gregg was also registered to play at the $25,000 six-max no-limit hold’em and initially planned to multi-task tables as he did not want to miss the event. However, he managed to win his $4.8 million event and then did his best to hurry past interviews to go and start playing the next event. When reporters asked him why the rush, Gregg responded
I just like playing poker. There is only one $25,000 six-max this year, and had I busted the ‘One Drop’ five minutes after registration ended in the $25,000 I would have been really bummed.
