Victory in the Cards for Local Poker Master

Morgan Hill resident Robert Collins finishes in the money
– $61,000 – at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas
By tony burchyns Staff Writer

Morgan Hill – Robert Collins stared down some of the world’s best poker players in Las Vegas last week, winning $61,000 in the vaunted World Series of Poker. 

Collins, 45, played in the Omaha Hi-Low event, placing sixth out of 670 players Wednesday in a complicated brand of poker based more on mathematical skill than wily bluffs. 

“My friends have dreamed of entering the World Series,” Collins said via cell phone last week, sitting down to another game of poker at a Las Vegas casino. “But I was the only one who had the gumption to put down the $2,000 (‘buy in’ fee) and give it a shot.” 

Staged each year by Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc., the World Series of Poker is widely considered the most awaited event of the poker year. There are several categories of play in the tournament, including Texas Hold’em Limit, Omaha Pot Limit, 7-Card-Stud Hi/Lo, Pot Limit, No Limit and other types of poker such as Razz and Lowball. 

This year’s winner of the Omaha Hi-Low event, Jack Zwerner, took home $341,000 in prize money. Other winners can take home millions of dollars. The 2005 World Series of Poker ended with a record-breaking $7.5-million run by Australian Joe Hachem in the main event.

Collins, a Silicon Valley engineer, entered the World Series as a rookie this year after years of playing poker with his work buddies. Every month he invites about 40 local players to his house in Morgan Hill for a night of law-abiding poker playing and a tri-tip steak dinner. He also hosts a poker Web site: www.cadillacpoker.com. 

His wife, Mary Anne, is a bit dismayed by it all: “I’m just not into the whole poker thing,” she said with a laugh. 

Still, she’s proud of her husband’s success in Las Vegas, even if she thought paying $2,000 to enter the tournament was silly. 

So, what will Collins do with his newfound winnings? 

“Pay off some bills, put some of it aside for Uncle Sam and make sure my family has a nice vacation,” Collins said. 

The World Series of Poker is open to anyone who wants to enter, but few people last past the first rounds. By the end of the first day Monday, the Omaha Hi-Low bracket was trimmed from 670 to 61 card players. 

Collins used what he termed a “tight” brand of play to make it all the way to the final table of nine contestants: “I choose my hands very selectively,” he said. “I only play the hands I know will win.”

After spending a month practicing poker online, Collins flew to Las Vegas early to figure out how many hands per hour the dealers were typically dealing. The knowledge helped him pace his bets in the three-day competition. 

The tournament’s most harrowing moments, he said, came against European star Marcel Luske, a top player from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, known for wearing upside-down sunglasses and expensive suits. 

“He and I went head-to-head, toe-to-toe,” Collins said. “He tried to bully me, push me off hands.” 

But Collins persevered, taking so many chips from Luske he said that the millionaire veteran was soon eliminated. “The other players respected me after that,” he chuckled. 

Collins hopes to return to the World Series of Poker next year. 

Meanwhile, he’s back at his day job.