Mike Watson Wins WPT Bellagio Cup IV

While a lot of focused on the World Series of Poker there was another major tournament happening at the same time in Las Vegas.  The World Poker Tour's Bellagio Cup IV was won last week by Mike Watson from Toronto, Canada.  He got $1,673,770 dollars for his first place finish.

“I don’t even know if it’s entirely sunk in or not, it was so much fun,” Watson said. “I had two small cashes at the World Series, but it had been a pretty unsuccessful summer and obviously I came in with pretty high expectations. So ending it the way I did it was almost like a story book ending with the way things worked out.”

Watson was a student but decided on a career as a professional poker player he started playing online poker investing small amounts but once he built up a sizeable bankroll he started playing for much higher stakes online.  Mike Watson dropped out of grad school to put his focus on poker but he did say that he hasn't completely ruled out going back.

“I don’t have any really long term plans, I definitely would consider going back to school at some point...for the time being I’m quite happy playing poker and it’s what I plan to do for a little while. In a few years down the road, if I’ve accomplished what I wanted to in poker, if it’s not as fun or interesting, then going back to school is definitely a strong possibility.”