Proving once again that the youth movement is on the march in poker, a quiet 22-year-old college student from Minneapolis became the youngest winner in the five-year history of the prestigious PartyPoker.com Million this week, claiming the $1 million first prize in a display of poker playing that impressed even hardened professionals.
James Schneider truimphed from an initial field of 528 players, almost 100 of whom ended up in the money aboard the luxury cruiseliner MS Westerdam, where the final events were held.
Wearing mirrored sunglasses and a back-to-front baseball cap Schneider outplayed seasoned veterans like Kenna James and Scott Buller, who commented that despite his age, Schneider “…played tough and deserved to win.”
Buller mustered out third with a cool $500,000 prize as a consolation, bringing his total PartyPoker.com Million winnings to nearly $600,000. Kenna James, of Las Vegas, claimed the largest paycheck of his career with a second place $700,000.
Two PartyPoker.com online players Drew Chitiea, a corporate pilot and flight instructor from Centennial, CO, and Richard Joel, a retired businessman, from Atlanta, joined in the fun, happy to take home $300,000 and $225,000 respectively. The sixth competitor was Devon Miller, an up-and-coming 21-year-old pro from Los Angeles with a reputation for being a Limit Hold’em specialist. He was the first to exit and collected $175,000.
Schneider could only say that he was “shell-shocked” at his victory, but he certainly didn’t show his anxiety under the spotlight. Asked what he was thinking behind his stoic poker face, he admitted: “oh God, oh God, oh God!”
Currently at the University of Minnesota studying journalism, he is planning to graduate in fall 2006, and has paid for his education through his poker winnings. He began playing in home games four years ago, and graduated to his hometown card room, Canterbury Park at 18, the legal age in Minnesota.
In 2003, he began playing online with PartyPoker.com. The PartyPoker.com Million is only his second high stakes tournament. Wisely, he hopes to put some of his PartyPoker.com winnings into investments, after building up his bankroll a bit and tucking some away for day-to-day expenses.
Schneider wasn’t sure he would make it past the first three hands on the second day of the tournament, when he ended day one with a small stack of 5,500 chips. “I had two dreams that night,” he said, “one that I would bust out and the other one that I would build back up to 150,000 chips. That second dream was pretty close. But I sure didn’t have a dream that foresaw a million dollars!”