Skipping a family wedding to play poker in Las Vegas isn’t usually going to win you any fans, but for 63-year-old Harlen Miller it resulted in a massive $367,801 payday at the Mid-Stakes Poker Tour.
“I just had a really strong feeling about this tournament”
Retired company owner Miller should have been in Montana for his niece Macie’s big day but the draw of the $1100 buy-in event at the Venetian was just too much to resist.
“I just had a really strong feeling about this tournament. I had to go,” Miller explained to his local Bismarck Tribune newspaper in North Dakota. “I don’t really know what it was, but I thought I could take it down, or get real close to it.”
That he certainly did, seeing off a field of 2789 other players to take down the win and a lifetime best cash of $367,801, some five times his previous biggest payday.
His self-confessed “old school” approach sees Miller “kinda go by my gut,” rather than by the numbers.
“The cards don’t know those percentages,” he claimed, adding: “There were a few hands where I should’ve been out of the tournament but for some reason that didn’t happen.”
His heads-up battle with young pro Ryan Dodd saw him spike a king on the river in the final hand, not an unusual ending according to the amateur poker fanatic.
“They call that getting Harlenized”
“They call that getting, “Harlenized,” Miller revealed, explaining: “Around here I play a lot of RPT (Roughrider Poker Tour) tournaments and I kind of have the reputation for the miracle card.”
Of the skipped wedding, Miller explained that he is one of 19 siblings, with 12 sisters and six brothers, none of whom are twins.
“I figured if one was missing, it wouldn’t hurt anything,” he said, adding, “I can get Macie a better wedding present now.”
“I can get Macie a better wedding present now”
Macie wasn’t the only one looking at a bonus from Harlen’s big win, the retired former office supply company owner spreading the good luck to local homeless people he encountered after the victory.
Handing out “a few hundred dollar bills”, Miller told reporters: “It felt pretty good to be able to do that.”
Also in line for a little extra are his grandchildren Harlen stating: “I’ll be able to enhance their college funds.”
Miller also recalled how he first got started in poker tournaments: “The first one was the Bismarck Elks were having a Texas hold ’em tournament. I didn’t know what I was doing,” he said.
“I brought a crib sheet so I would know what poker hand beat the next poker hand.”
Fifteen years later and Miller’s big win has vaulted him to 5th on the North Dakota all-time list, With more than $500,000 in lifetime tournament winnings.
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