Waterloo man wins cool $1.6 million in poker tourney

WATERLOO -- The hunter is now the hunted.

No longer can former Waterloo resident Joe Pelton sit down at a poker table and play in relative obscurity. Winning nearly $1.6 million playing no-limit Texas Hold'em tends to set a person apart.

It's a game that takes brains, skill and luck. On Wednesday, the 1995 West High valedictorian possessed all three en route to winning the 2006 Legends of Poker championship at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, Calif. It's one of 17 major tournaments on the World Poker Tour, which includes the ESPN-televised World Series of Poker.

Some of the biggest names in poker -- Scotty Nguyen, Hoyt Corkins, Kevin O' Donnell, Frankie O'Dell and Randy Holland -- were at the final table. Most with millions in winnings in their bank accounts.

Then there was Pelton, a 29-year-old business systems analyst for an insurance company from Newport Beach, Calif., with less than $23,000 in winnings from eight WPT tournaments in three years.

"I wasn't intimidated playing with them," Pelton said. "I felt I had the advantage because I know how they played watching them on television. But they didn't know me.