Local man loses world poker tour

Sometimes it’s just not in the cards.

Gerry Drehobl, the Spokane man who has been on a No-Limit Texas Hold’Em roll, made it to the second day before busting at this week’s World Series of Poker championship.

Drehobl was among the final 700 players before losing on Monday. There were 2,576 entries in the 35th annual weeklong championship, held at the Binions Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas. Drehobl, a 49-year-old self-employed aviation and maintenance consultant, won $365,000 in an April session of the WSOP.

“I don’t want to make excuses, but I played for two days and never got any cards,” he said. “It was just one of those things. I was lucky to survive for as long as I did.”

Drehobl, who moved to Spokane five years ago after marrying, began playing poker only about seven months ago. He said he’ll continue to compete in tournaments and has his sights set on the “World Poker Tour” events. The tour is broadcast on the Travel Channel. The WSOP will be aired on ESPN beginning July 6.

This year’s total prize money at the WSOP championship is $24,214,400. The last man or woman standing will win about $5 million. Defending champion Chris Moneymaker and 2003 runner-up Sam Farha lost the first day.

Although Drehobl is out the tournament entry fee of $10,000, he said he has gained a lot from the experience.

“It was insane,” he said. “It was unbelievable (winning). It was like ‘Oh my God, I got the pot at the end of the rainbow.’ ”