Alaskan Gold Miner Secures Spot in WPT World Championship

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Daniel Gilpin from Alaska has become another lucky guy who will try to take a piece of the record $40 million prize pie in the $10,400 WPT World Championship. The retired gold digger will join other World Cup ticket holders for a chance to win life-changing cash and play against the biggest names and stars in poker.

But it is worth noting that Gilpin, although he lives far from the centers of poker events, is far from a newcomer to major poker tournaments.

I’ve been a long-time resident of Nome, Alaska, engaging primarily in local poker games. In 2006, I secured a bar-sponsored trip to Las Vegas... During this visit, I participated in a $100 satellite to the Ultimate Poker Challenge, eventually entering the $650 tournament. To my delight, I clinched the 5th place, winning $3,137, and even made a television appearance.

In my subsequent participation in the Ultimate Challenge in 2007, I again finished in fifth place, this time winning $1,781. On another occasion in Tunica, Mississippi, I entered a $500 World Series of Poker event. Securing the 9th place in that game, I used my winnings to buy into a $5,000 event. Although I narrowly missed the prize money, finishing just three places short, I had a memorable encounter with David "The Dragon" Pham. When he attempted to bluff me, I saw through his tactic, called the bluff, and ultimately eliminated him from the tournament.

When asked about expectations from the upcoming WPT tournament, Gilpin responded as follows:

I want to get out of Nome, because I have been here for a hundred years. I have worked in the mining industry most of my life. Here in the middle of the tundra. And now all I want to do is just play poker.