Daniel Bergsdorf: It must be driving the poker pros absolutely crazy. The World Series of Poker has always been the Big Leagues for poker pros; back in the day when the WSOP was just getting started most poker players had to scour the country for money games in order to make a living, and so when the WSOP opened up they were quite happy. Even with so many opportunities to make a living playing poker today, what with the World Poker Tour and the Internet and all, the WSOP is still considered the biggest shot a pro has at taking down a huge tournament payout. At the start of the 2005 main event, however, every pro in the room must have look around at the 5,000 plus other people in the room and thought, “No way.”  It does cost $10,000 to get in, after all. But so many online qualifiers “muddying the waters,” even the huge buy in is become less of a barrier to entry. Enter Daniel Bergsdorf, a 27 year old Swede who managed to turn 33 bucks into a seat in the Big Leagues.

This young fellow hails from Umea, Sweden, and won his seat via an online event at PokerStars.com. If that poker room sounds familiar, it’s because that is also the place that Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer won their seats in the two previous years.  However he got in, Daniel played some hot poker, especially on the day before the main event, where he caught pocket kings and then pocket aces; twice. His cards ran a bit cold on the final day, and busted out in 7th place out of nine. As each player was guaranteed at least one million dollars, he couldn’t have been too unhappy. His take was 1.3 million, and he assured reporters on his way out the door a nice, new car was in his immediate future. As for more poker? Daniel says he will be taking a bit of a vacation before he picks up cards again. Don’t take too long, Daniel; unless you are on a secret mission, of course.

Daniel Bergsdorf is from Sweden and you have a package that screams “International Man of Mystery,” and the only possible ace in the hole for Average Joe was the fact that Bergsdorf was wasting his looks as a truck driver. Now that he’s trundled off home with over a million dollars it sort of cancels out that ace. It’s just not fair.