Poker Stories: Chance Kornuth

Chance Kornuth was just one semester shy of graduating from college when he decided to plunge headfirst into life as a professional poker player. He earned his first major taste of success in 2010, when he won the $5,000 PLO event at the WSOP for his first bracelet and $508K. The Denver-native continued to take shots with his bankroll, and found success both live and online.

In 2014, he won the Bellagio Cup main event for another $526K. A year later, he finished third in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $641K. He won the AUD$25,000 high roller at the Aussie Millions for $553K, and an event at the EPT Grand Final for $398K, and made several final tables all over the globe along the way. Most recently, he won his second WSOP bracelet, taking down an online event last summer for another $341K. In total, the 32-year-old has racked up nearly $6.4 million in live tournament earnings.

Kornuth now runs Chip Leader Coaching, a premier training program for mid-stakes MTT players who want to take their poker career to the next level. Site instructors include notable poker pros such as Nick Petrangelo, Joe McKeehen, Ryan LaPlante, Alex Foxen, Ryan Jones, and Ryan Leng.

Highlights from this interview include the difference a new haircut can make, using pennies for poker chips, dropping out one semester before graduating, dominating the Bellagio nightlies, stealing Adam's aces, taking over dad's online poker account, winning the first WSOP bracelet, the PLO palace, learning to treat poker like a job, staying out of the seven-figure club, why he decided to train poker players, winning and losing $450k pots, the importance of shot taking, Ben Lamb running bad at credit card roulette, helping JohnnyBax at the final table, his heist car, weighing dog crap for cash, giving a rebate to impress a dealer, and why live tells still matter.