LAS VEGAS -- So much for being a doctor.
Michael Banducci can make a living anywhere he can get an Internet connection.
The Traverse City resident hit it big -- well, bigger than normal -- in Las Vegas earlier this month, raking in a $636,736 top prize for winning a tournament in the run-up to the World Series of Poker main event.
It was several years ago while at Hope College that Banducci discovered that he was more cut out for cards than cardiograms.
"When I first started I didn't think I'd make a career out of it," Banducci said. "I thought it'd be a hobby to make a little extra money on the side. I was pre-med and I wanted to be a doctor, but I figured I could make as much or more than a doctor could make and have a way better lifestyle."
"It's not really about the money. It's about the fact that I can make my own hours. I can play from wherever I want because of the Internet. So I went to Australia for three weeks and still put in hours (playing). The lifestyle, you really can't beat."
Playing professionally since he turned 21 in 2006, Banducci has amassed $955,950 on the pro circuit. But he makes a good deal of his money playing online.
That was, until June 5.
That's when he raked in his biggest pro circuit catch, outlasting 766 players in the No-Limit Hold 'Em with Re-buys event at the Rio in Las Vegas.
"It was just unbelievable," Banducci said. "It's lucky, because of all the tournaments I've done well in, this one had the biggest prize pool. If there was one to win, it was this. When that last card hit and I had won, I remembered I just sat there and tilted my head up and was like, 'Oh my God.'"
On the first day of the tournament, Banducci cashed -- in poker parlance -- meaning he got far enough into the field to get into the money. Only a small fraction of players in any particular tournament make money.
In the event, it was the top 72 out of 766.
After day one, he was fifth in chips.
After day two, the field was cut down to the final table of nine players. Banducci came in with 9 million chips.
He lost about a million chips early in day three, but was able to double up on Nevada player and fifth-place finisher Alan Jaffray.
Jaffray went all-in with ace-queen and Banducci was sitting on pocket queens.
Banducci was in the chip lead from there on.
After 184 hands at the final table, it was down to two players. Banducci went all-in and coaxed 22-year-old Jeff Williams to do the same.
Williams had ace-five in the hole and Banducci showed ace-jack.
Banducci paired up on the king-jack-10 flop. A three on the turn and a four on the river were no help to Williams and Banducci had his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet -- doing it against a field that included seven former bracelet winners.
"Every poker player's dream is to win a bracelet," Banducci said. "That's why you play and why people come here every summer. They want all want to win a bracelet. It's a little piece of history. You can say you were a champion. It's just awesome."
Big-name players Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda and Phil Nguyen were among those in the field, along with Mike Binger, who was third in the 2006 World Series of Poker and is second in this year's Player of the Year standings.
Banducci's performance will be broadcast on ESPN on Aug. 12.
The former Bay Reps hockey player made one re-buy and a double add-on, investing $4,000 of his own money to win $636,736.
One player, Suk Sung, reloaded 23 times and Negreanu had 12 re-buys (Negreanu holds the record with 46 reloads in 2006).
Since then, Banducci' won more than $21,000 in a Heads-Up No-Limit Hold 'Em tournament on Sunday and finished in the money in a $1,500 no-limit Hold 'Em tourney by placing 70th out of 2,300 on Wednesday.
His previous best -- placement wise -- was a second-place effort in the Heartland Poker Tour Main Event Championship at Peshawbestown in just his second pro tournament. He won over $100,000 in a World Series of Poker event last June.
He won an 85,000-chip pot early in the 2007 World Series main event with a pair of pocket kings and another 20,000-chip pot on a pair of threes.
He's knocked out such big-name players as Phil Helmuth and Negreanu from tournaments.
This year's World Series of Poker starts in just over two weeks.
Banducci is coming back to TC next week for Cherry Festival, then flying back to Vegas the morning of the sixth to play the World Series.
Banducci's journey into the world of professional gambler didn't start until college.
"I started out just playing in the dorms and came back to Traverse City for the summer," Banducci said.
The poker room had just opened up at the Leelanau Sands, and soon he was a regular.
"My buddies and I would go up there just for fun," Banducci said. "At the time, I was working at Windows restaurant, and kind of found out I could make more (at the casino) than I was making at Windows. I could make a couple hundred dollars a night. So I quit my job there."
"When I went back to school, there were no casinos there, so we did the Internet thing."
That's when it started getting serious.
Playing on sites like partypoker.net and others, Banducci started winning frequently -- enough to pay for his college and buy a new car.
The poker binges would often have him playing 12 hours a day.
"I remember one weekend," Banducci said, "I got out of class at 3:00 on Friday and played non-stop until Saturday night, slept for two hours and woke up and played all the way until Monday morning."
Later, he and his friends toned down how much they played so they could enjoy their winnings and college life.
Sometimes now he plays up to 70 hours a week online when he's not traveling for tournaments in Nevada and California.
But the summer is mainly for home.
He goes to Vegas for the World Series events, which take up about a month, but spends the rest of the summer in Traverse City, where he's looking at buying a house.
"People have this bad rap about poker players," Banducci said. "There's no person I'd probably trust in the world more than any poker player. If I wanted to by tomorrow, I could have someone lend me $100,000 and they would know they'd get it back. You could never find that anywhere else. I have $50,000 lent out to people, and I know if I called them and said, 'Hey, I need that money right now,' they'll give it to me."
Banducci said he is constantly asked for advice by more novice players.
"People always want to know how you are beating these games. Some guy asked me at a tournament two days ago, he says, 'You're raising so much. Why are you doing that?' I was playing against him at the time and I said, 'I don't really want to talk about it now, but if you want to come around and ask me later, I'll try to help you out.'"
One sample piece of advice: It's easier to bluff if there's an ace on the table, because most players will assume you have one to go with it.
"I really don't mind it," Banducci said of the advice-seekers. "I like helping out people. The one thing I get a lot, which I hate, is when people come up to you and say, 'Hey, here's $50, can you make it $200 for me?' I wouldn't do that for anyone, but if anyone has a question about the game, I'm all about sharing what I know."
After a June like this, Las Vegas is listening.
No flop
Career winnings: $955,950
2008 rank: 83
Top 10 finishes: 5
Previous biggest win: $105,884 for fifth-place finish in 2007 World Series of Poker Event 10 (No-limit Hold Em)
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