Wednesday, June 29, 2016

UA Finance Prof Wins $1.2 Million in World Series of Poker

Posted By on Wed, Jun 29, 2016 at 4:30 PM

UA finance prof Mitchell Towner knew when to hold them and knew when to fold them yesterday at the World Series of Poker. The Las Vegas Review Journal caught up him after he played his winning hand:

“I really don’t play poker,” Towner said. “I’ve only ever played two events that are worth more than like $100.”

Towner, an assistant professor of finance at the University of Arizona, looked like anything but a novice on Tuesday night as he won the World Series of Poker’s $1,500 buy-in “Monster Stack” No-limit Hold ’em event at the Rio Convention Center.

The 29-year-old Towner defeated Venezuela’s Dorian Rios during heads-up play and collected $1.12 million along with his first — obviously — career bracelet.

“I just tried to play fairly straightforward. I didn’t want to put myself in any marginal spots,” Towner said. “It seemed like people were liable to blast off occasionally and so I figured, you never know, maybe I’ll get hit with the deck of cards and run really, really well, and that’s what happened.”
[Las Vegas Review-Journal]

Ed note: This post original referred to Towner as a math professor.