Party Poker Players Choice: Money Or The Jet
Published: Saturday, February 11, 2006 Online-Casinos.com
PARTY POKER PLAYERS CHOICE: MONEY OR THE JET
Party Poker winner faced a tough choice
Paul Wieber faced a tough choice this week when he won a major online poker tournament at market leader Party Poker - he had to choose between a cash payout and the use of a private executive jet to fly anywhere he wished for 25 hours.
The 32 year old customer service manager from Grand Rapids in the USA went the responsible route as a married man with a young family, and elected to leave the private jet on the runway and fill up his bank account instead with the $125,000 cash equivalent.
He's putting some of it aside to invest in his child's college education, and has plans for the rest of it: "Flying around like a star of show business would be nice, but the way I see it $125,000 is going to buy me a lot of normal plane tickets!" said a delighted Wieber.
Besides starting a college fund for his son Ethan, he plans to visit relatives in Florida, "buy some fun stuff, a couple of toys and put money towards a new house."
And some of his Party Poker cash is earmarked for the novice poker player's very first trip to Las Vegas! Wieber describes himself as "pretty much brand new to poker" and has only been playing online poker for six months.
Better yet, since the Party Poker tournament was a "freeroll," where the entrants do not have to put up a dime of their own, Wieber's winnings will be pure profit.
"To say I'm a little bit surprised to win is an understatement – it is unbelievable! I remember when I was on the final table going heads-up and we had a little break. I wrote a little note to my opponent and he couldn't believe he was there either. For the past few months I've only been on the play money tables – I have to say I was pretty lucky. Thirty minutes into the game I was down to $170 and was almost out but somehow I just came back."
PartyPoker spokesman Warren Lush said: "Paul is a great example of how a novice can go really far in poker in a very short space of time. We know he's trying to qualify for the Party Poker Million V in March and hope to see him there."
