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?

On Tuesday — or perhaps early Wednesday morning — one of nine remaining players will ride a wonderful combination of luck and skill to win the World Series of Poker’s main event. The winner will win $8.25 million, and the top five will all become millionaires. Even the ninth-place finisher will earn more than half a million dollars.

Such a windfall can be difficult to handle. Scotty Nguyen, the 1998 main event champion and beloved icon of the game, has admitted in past interviews to going broke at least 100 times earlier in his career, primarily because he struggled to control his gambling urges outside of poker. Play route 66 poker.

Not every poker player has such problems, but it’s not exactly rare, either. Such are the hazards of having fame and wealth beyond your dreams dumped into your lap in the blink of an eye. It’s not unlike winning the lottery, and there are plenty of stories of lottery winners ending up destitute not long after stumbling into fortune.

“It’s my understanding that a lot of lottery winners end up broke, and a lot of poker champions end up broke as well within a couple of years, unfortunately,” says Robert Varkonyi, who won $2 million when he bested British pro Julian Gardner to win the main event in 2002. “They don’t know how to save money, be a little conservative with some of the money, do some homework and find someone who you really trust.”

It can be difficult to adjust to such a life-changing amount of cash, especially if you are inclined to gamble in the first place, like many poker players & women poker pros are.

Varkonyi says he thinks many of the stories of crazy sidebets and outrageous behavior are exaggerated to foster images, but Australian poker pro Joe Hachem disagrees.

“Most of the stories are true,” says Hachem, who won the main event — and $7.5 million — in 2005. “In poker, we have a lot of people who are gamblers who happen to be good poker players. So they keep chasing and chasing and chasing until they get hurt.

“They’re never satisfied. The winning is not where they get the thrill. The losing is not where they get the thrill. It’s the actual chase that gives them the thrill.”

Hachem says he was fortunate not to have to battle such demons.

“I was blessed because I didn’t have any vices,” he says. “So I didn’t go out and gamble big, or go do drugs, or party. I’m married happily with four children, happy with my life. So the money went straight to pay off the mortgage. And I invested the rest for my kids and helped a lot of my family out.” Play $500 match poker bonus.

But the pitfalls of a major World Series victory go beyond the obvious lure of gambling, drugs, and debauchery. There is temptation to spend your wealth to upgrade your lifestyle. New wannabe friends suddenly materialize out of thin air. Complete strangers send letters requesting handouts.

“Sometimes (when) you get cash like that, people like to buy expensive cars and things of that nature, and in a year or year and a half it’s gone,” says Mike Moneymaker, whose son Chris won the main event in 2003 for a $2.5 million payday. “They just don’t know how to handle it.”

Moneymaker pointed out that his son owns a masters in accounting and wasn’t “one to throw his money away.” As for the hangers-on? Moneymaker says his son had to change his phone number twice, even though it was unlisted.

“He’s pretty good about screening that stuff out,” Mike Moneymaker says. “You always get people who write in with their sob stories. You know, ‘my husband’s on dialysis and he’s confined to a wheelchair and we can’t pay our bills.’ You get those letters all the time.

“It’s been a crazy three years, but (Chris) puts family first. And his friends. You can go through life and count your true friends on one hand.”

Jamie Gold discovered that lesson the hard way, finding himself in an uncomfortable position after winning $12 million in last year’s main event. Gold was sued by his friend Crispin Leyser, with Leyser claiming Gold had promised him half his winnings as part of a prearranged deal. Gold quickly settled the matter without going to court, but was dogged by negative publicity from the incident. Online poker.

“They knew it was a non-issue. I knew it was a non-issue,” Gold says. “Anyone on the inside with me knew there wasn’t really a lawsuit. They had filed it, it was a mistake, we were always going to split the money.”

Greg Raymer had a much more quiet experience with his big payday. He was working as an attorney for pharmaceutical research giant Pfizer when he banked $5 million for winning the main event in 2004. Raymer was so non-plussed by his poker success that he waited six days after his big win to resign from Pfizer, taking time to prepare his caseload for his successor. And three years later, he has yet to even have his cumbersome and uncomfortable championship bracelet properly sized.

“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 poker 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.”

Hachem, a former chiropractor who had to give up his practice due to a blood disorder in his hands, has some strong advice for whoever takes 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. Download poker wallpapers.

“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.

“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 sound advice. And a whole lot safer than standing in the ocean for 18 hours.

Poker News Source: msnbc