Ryan Daut may have to start screening his phone calls.
Daut, a Penn State doctoral candidate, won $1.5 million playing Texas Hold 'Em poker over break, making him a prime target for friends and relatives looking to score a few extra bucks.
"Some kid messaged me the other day and said, 'My mom got in a car accident and I need $3,000,' " Daut said.
A mathematics student, Daut went to the Bahamas during break, but instead of basking in the sun, he beat 936 other players to win the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, a World Poker Tour event. Daut paid $8,000 to play in the tournament, where only the top 180 contestants finish ahead.
Daut won the last hand of the tournament on Jan. 10 at the Atlantis Resort and Casino after playing nearly 1,000 hands over several days. In the last hand of his winning game, Daut played an ace, which beat his opponent's queen.
"For most of the tournament I didn't think I could win because there were so many players, but when I got to the final table I knew there was a good chance I could," Daut said.
Poker has gained popularity in recent years, particularly among college students, with TV and Internet broadcasting of the World Poker Tour and other shows, such as Celebrity Poker.
Daut said he won't be spending the money frivolously. "[I'll be] playing higher games with it, investing some of it, but I'm not really going to spend too much," he said.
Because he received a full academic scholarship to University of Richmond as an undergraduate and a stipend as a graduate student, he will not be using the money to pay for college loans.
Daut has also dropped his math apprenticeship because he said he simply won't have enough time to teach math classes this semester and play poker. "I have a lot of time commitments with poker," he said.
The student admitted that his new millionaire status is a combination of talent and luck. When asked whether poker is really a game of skill or chance, Daut said, "In the long run it's a game of skill, but in the short-term, anything can happen."
Daut won't just quit while he's ahead. For him, poker isn't a habit but a hobby. "I expect to win more by playing, and I enjoy it," he said.
