A $25 gamble has come back to reward Chris Hinchcliffe -- big time.
The Olympia resident won $441,163 this past weekend in a poker tournament aboard a cruise ship. So what's the first thing he'll do with the money?
"I'm going to buy my mom a car," said Hinchcliffe, a 32-year-old construction worker. "She's been driving around the same car the last 12 years and it has 200,000 miles on it. She deserves a new one."
His mother lives in Hawks Prairie.
As for the rest of it, he hasn't decided yet. But plenty of people have offered to help him invest it.
"I kind of stuck it away to give myself time to think, to come down to earth," he said. "Make sure I'm not going on any crazy spending spree."
The tournament, with a $1 million first prize, was hosted by PartyPoker.com, which allows people to place bets and take their chances in an online poker room.
Hinchcliffe put in $25 and won against 10 players in an initial qualifying round. He advanced to the second level, where he placed eighth and was among the top 24 to win a one-week cruise to the Sea of Cortez and a chance to play for $1 million.
In all, 546 players tested their skills in six to 12 hours of cardplaying a day, during four days at sea.
Hinchcliffe, who placed third, said it wasn't skill that helped him win.
"I got lucky and won," he said. "At one point, I was almost out of the tournament, but I doubled up with a pair of jacks."
Jacks saved him again on the third day of the tournament and kept him in the game.
The cruise tournament will air on the Travel Channel on June 16, said Jackie Lapin, spokeswoman for PartyPoker.com, who confirmed Hinchcliffe's win.
Hinchcliffe hasn't always won big at poker. Once when his work took him to a Nevada casino, "I probably made $15,000 and lost $10,000 at the poker table," he said.
He started playing on PartyPoker.com about seven months ago and is on the Web site about twice a week. The Olympia High School graduate sometimes travels for work, but plays at the Hawk's Prairie Casino and Restaurant when he's home.
"It's the very first time I won anything of this magnitude, but let's put it this way: I'm not quitting my day job," he said.
