(JTA) — A Montreal man who skipped both seders at his mother’s home in Florida to play in a poker tournament took home the $1 million title.
Eric Afriat on April 16 won the World Poker Tour/Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown in Hollywood, Fla., in a field of 1,795 participants.
Afriat told the Sun-Sentinel newspaper that he considered quitting the tournament even as he advanced to attend the seders in West Boca Raton with his extended family.
“Here I was moving up the ladder in a big poker tournament, yet I kept getting more depressed,” he said. “I was so sad I thought about just leaving my chips at the table Monday night and going home. But I’m now delighted everyone was in town to see me win.”
Afriat, 45, is an importer from Montreal. He was the only amateur player in the final round of the poker tournament.
