Championship Poker is like a major sporting event - cheering fans adorned with big block letter T-shirts, and silly hats in the stands - play by play and color announcers - corporate sponsors - and broadcasts on ESPN.
Twenty-three year old Michigan native Ryan Riess won the the championship early this morning in Las Vegas.
His "World Series of Poker" title came with an $8,361,570 payout. A pretty good return after paying $10,000 to enter his first match.
You can watch the winning moment here (An Ace and King of hearts took the pot).
The Associated Press has more on how Riess got his start:
Riess' parents say that like many poker players, their son always had a head for numbers. As a 14-year-old, he became obsessed with poker after watching amateur Chris Moneymaker win the main event. "In my basement, I had a $10 home game that I ran twice a week, just playing with my friends. I won all the time, which I thought was kind of weird, so I thought maybe I should do this more often," he said, sipping beer from a can moments after his win.
Riess grew up in Watertown, Michigan. He joins Michigan natives Tom "Grand Rapids Tom" McEvoy and Joe Cada as past poker champions.
