Word: hawrilenkos
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...alone. Gambling is a known phenomenon, but professional gambling? That's a whole different story. Find out more about these professionals, including acclaimed player Matt Hawrilenko, and how they manage to get on the good side of luck...
Case in point: In Hawrilenko’s worst month, he stepped up to a bigger play and lost about a million dollars. “That hurt,” he recalls. But the month before, he had won $700,000. And the month following also proved fruitful. Hawrilenko never totally depleted his bankroll that year—a “great year,” in fact. A seasoned player, Hawrilenko had the funds, the temperament, and the knowledge to buffer the loss of even a million dollars. In the long run, he knew, it was just...
...don’t sit down at the poker table, and I don’t really feel that rush,” Hawrilenko says. “I find that the more logical you are, the more you try to analyze every situation, and the more you can kind of see the big picture and the long view, the less it feels like gambling.” In fact, some days, Hawrilenko just doesn’t want to play—but he has to, he says, because it supports his very livelihood...
...reserved, introverted man who speaks softly with a slight lisp, Hawrilenko won a large tournament at the World Series in Vegas this past summer and was swiftly reminded just how unevenly his own lifestyle matches up with the stereotype of the poker champion. “People were asking me, ‘So how are you going to celebrate it? Are you going out to get booze and strippers?!’” Hawrilenko recalls. “Most of my housemates don’t really drink that much, and I don’t really...
...Hawrilenko says that there are plenty of low-key intellectual players like himself, but the flamboyant, self-described “high rollers” tend to get more camera time, fueling a media image of a scene of excess, debauchery, and ballooning egos. “My friends and I, we laugh at these guys. They have their bling and their backwards hat”—Hawrilenko makes the vigorous motion of pulling an invisible hat back—“and their sunglasses on”—he puts on a pair...