July
2010
Meet Michael Chow – Poker pro from Hawaii
Talk about lucky. Michael Chow, a poker pro from Honolulu, Hawaii, won $237,463 and his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet in the $1,500 buy-in Omaha High-Low Split tournament (Event #4) on the day of his 33rd birthday early on Wednesday morning. Chow is believed to be only the second Hawaiian in WSOP history to win a gold bracelet. Lisa Hamilton, who won the Ladies World Championship in 2009, is believed to be the first. “There are a lot of very good poker online players who come out of Hawaii,” said Chow, according to a newspaper report. “There are a lot of games back home. Many people come to Las Vegas from Hawaii. Maybe more people will come and play poker now (after I won).” Chow, who previously worked in real estate before playing online poker full-time, now concentrates mostly on high-stakes cash games in his native Hawaii and in casinos in both Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Chow previously had about $300,000 in live tournament winnings. He is now up over half a million in earnings. Chow defeated longtime tournament veteran Dan Heimiller in heads-up play. Chow dominated most of play on Day Three, but lost his chip lead late against Heimiller, a Las Vegas pro who won a WSOP bracelet in 2002 in a Seven Card Stud event. When heads-up play began, Heimiller enjoyed a 2-to-1 chip advantage over Chow. He increased his lead to about 5-to-1 at one point. But Chow stormed back during the last 90 minutes for the victory. Congrats to Chow.
