It would be easy to hate Doug Kim. At the end of his first week on the job as a financial analyst for Mercer Oliver Wynam--a gig he picked up straight out of Duke--the 22-year-old New Yorker is heading for a sunny, tropical paradise.
The top brass at his firm has elected to send the rookie packing on a business trip to Puerto Rico and put him up in the Ritz.
"Most of the other first-years look at me with hate glares," Kim, Trinity '06, says with a laugh as he maneuvers through traffic on the way to the airport, chatting on his cell phone.
But Puerto Rico aside, his fellow financial fresh-faces and recent college grads may want to cast "hate glares" at Kim for another reason--a $2.4-million reason.
In early August, Kim placed an impressive seventh in the Main Event of the 2006 World Series of Poker. Not bad for a first-timer who qualified online just days before the competition.
Out of 8,773 entrants in the biggest tournament in the poker world, Kim walked away with winnings worth $2,391,520.
A great job. Puerto Rico. Millions of dollars. International acclaim. At 22.
Yes, it'd be easy to hate Doug Kim.
But the fact is, you can't hate him. He's a normal guy--another Dukie who loves basketball, can quote 24's Jack Bauer and admits he could have worked a little bit harder in some of his classes.
He's too down-to-earth, too easygoing, too humble to hate.
"It's going a little bit okay," Kim says meekly of his recent luck.
Luck, however, isn't all that got Kim to the WSOP's final table. He learned to play poker four years ago at a buddy's house in his Westchester County hometown. During his freshman year at Duke, Kim frequented $20 buy-in games on campus. Pretty soon, he was all-in.
"I always had an interest in video games, and poker is kind of like that. It's just fun to try to outwit your opponents," Kim explains. "The whole mentality in college is to be with your buddies and try to beat them in some sort of game-video games, sports. It's really about the competition to me, more so than monetary gain."
But his inexperience cost Kim a chunk of cash, and the time commitment claimed a few tenths of his GPA. So, Kim did what any good player would do--he practiced. "I studied the game over the summer, and I read books. played a couple of hands, and sophomore year, I started playing online second semester," Kim says.
Within a year, he was building a bankroll, playing online about 10 hours each week as a senior. He estimates that he raked in about $50,000 over the last two years.
Leaving college, however, Kim knew his job in the real world wouldn't necessarily allow him to spend hours playing poker. So he decided to take a shot at the WSOP--one last shot.
"I was thinking to myself. 'This is going to be my last opportunity,'" Kim recalls.
He started playing more intensely than usual over the summer, working to qualify online as a satellite competitor-a player who makes it to the WSOP through another tournament-and earning some cash on the side for hotel accommodations and other expenses. But Kim didn't expect to get a seat.
He was planning on flying to Las Vegas to watch his friend and Duke senior Jason Strasser play, assuming he would just be a spectator.
Then, July 23th, he got a satellite seat. One of 55. And all of a sudden, Kim was in the game.
Entering a competition dominated by smooth, seasoned veterans, however, Kim's expectations were still low. "Going into it, I gave myself a 50-50 shot of surviving the first day," he says.
But he did more than survive. Day after day, Kim found himself in a dwindling pack of players. Before long, he was at the final table of the main event. Of nine remaining players, Kim was in sixth.
At the final table, he donned a Duke t-shirt, a Mariano Rivera Yankees jersey-to "close out the game," he said-and sunglasses-because, you know, "it makes you look cool." Kim sat with some of the best poker players in the world, playing for a $12-million first-place prize.
"I just remember shuffling my chips a lot," Kim recalls. "It was a once-in-the-lifetime situation.... The money wasn't on my mind-well, it was a little bit-but I was trying to play for first place."
Six intense hours later, however, Kim was done. He busted out in seventh when competitor Paul Wasicka's pocket queens held up over Kim's pocket nines. Jamie Gold, a former poker talent agent, ended up claiming this year's title.
"The hand kind of played itself. I was destined to lose that hand," Kim says of his last moments at the table. "I wasn't too sad."
Kim, however, isn't a spending fiend. He says he's been talking to accountants to decide what to do with the money-about $1 million of which he'll likely lose to taxes.
"I was thinking of buying an apartment in Manhattan. Maybe investments. Probably something that has to do with maximizing value," Kim says.
On his way to Puerto Rico, relishing in his victory and generally loving life, Kim says he plans on heading back to the WSOP next year. In the meantime, he may join a game some colleagues run in New York or play on his own time when he can.
"I play online from time to time, but if work gets too hectic, I probably won't," he notes. Friendly, successful, and level-headed?
You can easily envy Doug Kim, but you just can't hate him.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.