人妻少妇专区

Alumni Gazette

Professional life began typically enough for Jonathan Dimmig 鈥�05, 鈥�06S (MBA). After earning two degrees at Rochester, he returned to his native Buffalo to take a job as a financial analyst. For 10 years he worked in the field, while pursuing a hobby he鈥檇 been introduced to by one of his roommates at Rochester: poker.

In 2012, Dimmig took a dramatic step. He left his job and moved to Las Vegas to make a go of it as a professional poker player.

鈥淚t was obviously a big risk,鈥� he says.

And a worthwhile one, apparently. In June, he prevailed over nearly 8,000 competitors around the world to win the six-week-long 2014 World Series of Poker鈥攁nd take home more than $1 million in winnings.

A lifelong hockey enthusiast and diehard fan of the Buffalo Sabres, Dimmig says the World Series of Poker is 鈥渓ike the Stanley Cup"鈥攅xcept in this contest, a Buffalonian came out on top. About 15 of Dimmig鈥檚 friends traveled to Vegas to watch him play at the final table, where he wore a Buffalo Sabres shirt with pride.

According to Alex Weldon, a game designer and poker player writing on the website pokerforums.org, 鈥淒immig came out on top of the second largest field in live poker history.鈥� Yet, 鈥淒immig would not have been anyone鈥檚 pick when the final table first kicked off.鈥�

He began the final table in sixth place. Moreover, while the final table is called the 鈥淢illionaire Maker,鈥� Dimmig, a relatively young player, had never won more than five figures.

Dimmig says his poker prowess comes down to math.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a heavily math-based profession. So if you don鈥檛 have a background in math, you鈥檙e at a slight disadvantage. At Simon, they definitely teach you a math-based approach to solving problems. So that approach has given me a leg up on the competition.鈥�

Las Vegas is the world鈥檚 center of professional poker. But London is another hot spot, and Dimmig hopes to travel there and elsewhere in Europe to play.

鈥淟ooking forward from a poker perspective,鈥� he says, 鈥淚 definitely want to play in some more tourneys. But one of the things I鈥檓 most looking forward to is, I鈥檓 actually writing a book.鈥�

鈥淚 have no background in writing whatsoever,鈥� he says. But he had an unusually vivid dream, and it became an idea for a novel. He鈥檚 completed several chapters. 鈥淚 think it can be very successful,鈥� he says.

鈥擪aren McCally 鈥�02 (PhD)