Youth is Served Again at Party Poker Million

A 19-year old University of Georgia student just won the European Poker Tour’s Grand Final, and now, a 21-year old University of Minnesota student won the PartyPoker.com Million V this past Friday, March 17. Outlasting 527 competitors on the ms Amsterdam, Mike Schneider won $1 million in front of a boisterous group of supporters.

The fact that Schneider is young is certainly something, but it is yet another sign of the current state of poker. More and more college-aged players are finding success on the world stage, thanks primarily to the popularity of online poker. It’s only fitting that a member of the youth movement won an online poker room’s major live event.

What may be more impressive, however, was the comeback that Schneider needed to make to even make it past day two. He finished the first day close to last place, with only $5,500 in chips. For comparison, the chip leader had $78,000. Undeterred, Schneider went on a tremendous run and proceeded to build his stack to $251,000 the next day. He didn’t look back.

Schneider went into the final table as the chip leader and had little trouble making it to heads-up play against effervescent pro, Kenna James. With the help of a substantial chip lead, Schneider made quick work of James to emerge victorious in only his second large buy-in event.

Hopefully the oversized novelty check made it through customs.

Originally published March 20, 2006