Used Car Dealer Brandon Steven: Leaves Vegas With $635,011 Lemon
Brandon Steven is returning to selling used cars in Wichita, Kansas after coming up one place short of the final table of the 2010 World Series of Poker.
Steven, who runs Brandon Steven Motors, number 10 finish may seem like a lemon to him today, but tomorrow that sour taste should get a whole lot sweeter.
Wichita’s most famous used car dealer is now one of its richest. He takes home a delectable $635,011.
He had started the tournament on July 5 along with 7,318 other players and was part of a near day long straight grueling session before it all ended at around 5:30 am Sunday morning. Following the 11th elimination, it took several hours before Steven finally bid farewell.
While barely a mention of big name poker pro Michael Mizrachi has been made in his local Miami papers, the smaller market of Wichita has treated Steven like a rock star of sorts. He headlined articles in the local paper, the Wichita Eagle. Coverage of his performance ranked as the number one read in the online edition of that paper.
"Of course the money is totally awesome but I came to compete," Steven told the local news station KSN. "Not winning is failing to me but the money is awesome. I'm sure when the sting passes I'll be super excited but right now it hurts."
Many of Steven's relatives made the trip to Vegas to watch Brandon compete. They returned to Wichita Sunday afternoon with his $630,000 check in tow.
"We're thrilled he got that far," said his brother Rodney. "We were just hoping he'd get to the final 750 players, than he got down to 400, then 300, then 200, then 100...then he's down to the final ten last night. So that was just absolutely amazing."
Patrick Flanagan, Gambling911.com
