From Sarasota to poker heaven

22-year-old who played at Kennel Club wins $3 million in Monte Carlo

SARASOTA — Glen Chorny became a regular at the late-night $40 poker tournaments at Sarasota Kennel Club starting in December, after he gave up on college and moved into his parents' Lakewood Ranch home.

Then, last week, he won the biggest poker tournament in European history, collecting the $3.1million top prize and launching his career as a professional player.

Playing poker on a computer on his parents' lanai, the 22-year-old Canadian had won an all-expenses paid entry into the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monte Carlo.

"I honestly told people going into Monte Carlo I had to win it for myself," Chorny said Monday in a phone interview from Las Vegas. "I wanted to arrive in the poker world, so to speak."

Bankrolled with his stock portfolio, Chorny had been traveling from home base in Lakewood Ranch to high-stakes tournaments across the globe as he honed his skills.

His 13th-place finish at a European Poker Tour event in the Bahamas on Jan. 10 netted him $80,000. A poker tournament victory a week later earned him another $80,000.

That victory also earned him a bracelet -- the poker equivalent of a Super Bowl ring -- that he sometimes wore to the One-Eyed Jacks poker room at the Kennel Club.

But in between those tournaments, he played at the Kennel Club poker room, 10 minutes from his parents' home, for fun and to keep sharp.

"I never really played seriously," he said of the Kennel Club excursions.

Chorny, who started playing poker seriously about two years ago, is now among the contenders for player of the year.

He says that during a tournament, his head is swimming in math, in the probabilities of hitting winning hands, in figuring out opponents' strategies and in sensing the bluff.

"I have the sort of brain that has a natural talent in this stuff," Chorny said. "I like to call it disorganized chaos."

His father was surprised to learn that his son was something of a math whiz.

"He had an aversion to traditional mathematics throughout school," Greg Chorny said. "All of a sudden he's a brilliant natural-born mathematician."

But his parents have no regrets about raising a professional gambler. They winter in Lakewood Ranch, but like parents of a Little League player, they watched almost every deal at the winning tournament.

The biggest hand for Chorny came with four people left, when he was dealt two aces -- theoretically the best hand -- and went head-to-head with one of the players favored to win the tournament.

Isaac Baron took so long thinking about what to bet that Chorny asked officials to step in, at which point Baron went all in. Chorny quickly called.

Baron had a queen and an ace in the pocket, and Chorny's pair took the pot.

Now he is thinking about buying a place in Sarasota because he liked it here. And do not count him out of the $40 game at the Kennel Club.

"Oh sure, you'll see me back there at some point," Chorny said.

In the meantime, he entered and was eliminated from a $25,000-entry tournament in Las Vegas in the first day.

"That's poker," said his mother, Kathy Chorny.

News Added: 22 April, 2008

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