The Ninth World Series of Poker Event
A retired teacher from Pleasant Gardens, North Carolina took a step back in time to teach one more lesson, to the professionals and other players who placed their buy in fee into the ninth World Series of Poker event.
Ken Aldridge, 57, entered the tournament that offered a dense participation list as well as a string of professional poker players who make a daily living from playing poker.
Entering into the tournament was a daunting experience for the retired teacher after been a self confessed recreational player, carrying only two previous poker tournament cashing in his history of competitive playing.
Aldridge beat out 1,458 other players who had bought into the $1,500 no limit Texas Hold’em short handed tournament, hosted within the hugely popular World Series of Poker (WSOP) tournament schedule. With the tournaments large participation numbers, the tournament offers a total prize pool of $1,991,535 and paid out the top 144 places.
Taking the first place in the tournament means that the 57 year old retired teacher walks away with $428,259 in prize winnings.
Aldridge said that this was just another success in his life, saying “I really value the years I spent as a teacher, because I was always around such a wonderful group of people, I hope that I helped them to become better people. That’s the lesson I hoped to teach them most ’to become better people.’”
After been asked how he thought he had preformed in the poker download tournament after winning, the recreational player said that he felt that he played an almost perfect game, “I really don’t think I made many mistakes, I was very happy with how things went. I think I was behind only one time the whole tournament when I was all-in.”
This goes to show that even the amateur players that enter into the World Series of Poker tournament schedule carry the confidence of a professional.
The tournament seemed to offer less for the notable professionals who had stumped up the $1,500 buy in fee, with Rafe Furst been the highest placed of the known names, finishing in 31st place.
The top 10 finishers in the tournament placed in this order:
1. Ken Aldridge ($428,259)
2. Carman Cavella ($264,814)
3. Peter Gould ($170,953)
4. Bryce Yockey ($115,230)
5. Charles Furey ($80,896)
6. Manny Minaya ($59,049)
7. Praz Bansi ($42,320)
8. Bryn Kenney ($42,320)
9. Robert Lipkin ($30,311)
10. Steve McNally ($30,311)