SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) — A Jewish grandfather from Melbourne won the world’s second-largest poker tournament.
David Gorr, 68, took the nearly $2 million prize Sunday in the Crown Aussie Millions Main Event 2011 tournament, beating 721 competitors, including the top poker players from around the world.
The prize also included a diamond-encrusted bracelet.
Gorr said he was first exposed to poker as a child in the 1940s when his parents would organize charity fundraisers. He hasn’t missed a day’s work since 1976, and although he played poker 12 hours a day for the last week, he turned up at his job as a computer technician at a major insurance company on Monday as usual.
Gorr said he would use his winnings to help his five grandchildren.
Last year’s tournament was won by Tyron Krost, who also is Jewish.
