His chips came in

Down to his last $30,000 in chips at the 2005 World Series of Poker, Liberty Lake’s Bryant King had advanced far enough to take home some money.

He just absorbed a tough loss, nearly knocking him out of tournament, and ESPN cameras wanted to know how he felt.

“I told them, ‘I’m not done. I’ll be back,’ ” King said.

Whether or not he actually believed it – after all, unfounded confidence, or bluffing, is an important element of playing cards – isn’t important.

What’s important is the fact that he did come back, turning that $30,000 into $750,000 worth of chips by the end of the day and eventually finishing 21st out of 5,619 players at poker’s main event, taking home $304,680 in the process.

King, a 38-year-old who owns a local concert promoting business, learned poker as a 6-year-old from his grandmother in Kentucky. He’s lived in the area 13 years, but just picked up Texas Hold ‘em, the most popular form of poker and the game played at the ESPN-televised World Series, five years ago.

He qualified for the WSOP by winning an online poker tournament at PartyPoker.com, placing first in a 1,300-person tournament.

With that win, the site paid his $10,000 entry fee, gave him spending money and put him up at the MGM Grand.

“It took me about 11 straight hours (to win the online tournament). It was cool,” King said. “It’s kind of nice, because it was free. I would have gone anyway, but they also gave you $1,700 in cash and paid for the hotel.”

After arriving in Vegas, King drew the second day (the initial 5,619 is broken up into three days), and advanced through that day into the final tournament, with 1,900 players.

“That’s when the tournament truly starts,” King said. “The first day (you play) is the easiest. You’ve got a lot of people who are non-skilled players, and just trying to accumulate chips and they make mistakes. After that, every day was tough.”

King survived the fourth day, but almost got knocked out in the fifth day after the field had reached the final 560, all of whom end up in the money.

King was dealt a pair of aces, the best starting hand in Hold ‘em, and an opponent put in a big raise, which King more than quadrupled. His opponent called King’s bet, and the first three community cards came out a nine, a two and a two. His opponent checked, and King bet $500,000 of his $530,000 worth of chips to force his opponent to put all his chips in if he wanted to continue with the hand.

He called, flipping over a pair of 10s. The fourth card came out with no help to either player, and the final card, against 22-to-1 odds, showed a 10 for a winning three-of-a-kind, and leaving King with $30,000 left.

His mentor, housemate and a dealer coordinator for the World Series, Phil Routsis, knew he had to get King off the table.

“That’s a real tough beat,” Routsis said. “First of all, he was livid that he lost. Nobody likes to lose, but that’s going to happen. You’ve got to get him off the table and calm him down. He had an hour break for dinner, and he’s got to get himself back the poker face.”

He did, and by the sixth day of the tournament, he had $1.4 million in chips, but couldn’t make it as far as the final table.

“I lost with a good hand (an ace-king) in a bad situation,” King said. “You do have to get lucky. Of all the times I had to go ‘all-in,’ only twice did I not have the best hand.”

On his way to 21st place, King said he handled some of the big-name professionals, including taking his biggest pot from Phil Ivey, one of the game’s biggest stars.

There’s also the matter of what to do with the money, almost four times as much as he’s won in a tournament.

“It’s a matter to be decided yet,” King said. “I’m still thinking about it. I’ll probably invest it more than anything else. I didn’t go out and buy anything spectacular.”

He’s also been offered sponsorship into more tournaments, and has thought about going into poker full time.

For now, he’ll probably just play in more tournaments and travel around a little more.

His sudden rise near the top of the game helps to explain its recent surge in popularity.

“You can’t beat Tiger Woods in golf,” King said. “But I can beat Phil Ivey and Greg Raymer in poker. Anybody can play with them.”