9/11 Cop Beats Negreanu on TV For Million Dollar Prize

Someone has beaten Daniel Negreanu to win the $1 million grand prize in the Poker Stars Million Dollar Challenge. His name is Mike Kosowski, and he is a retired police officer from New York who was there during the 9/11 attacks. In fact, it was during those attacks that he was injured and forced to retire. And it was during that retirement that he found a new hobby in the game of poker. That hobby has just turned this former NY cop into a millionaire.

The Million Dollar Challenge is a television game show broadcast on FOX television and sponsored by Poker Stars.

On September 11, Mike, was one of the first responders. He was helping to evacuate people from the World Trade Center when the South Tower fell, knocking him ten feet into the air and causing injuries and burns to his back and neck. During his recovery he learned to play poker, in part by reading Doyle Brunson’s two famous tomes, Super System I and II.

During Mike’s initial round in the TV show, after landing his spot by winning a freeroll tournamnet. he lost to Joanna Krupa, a supermodel. But his fellow contestants all lost their opening rounds as well, so a Sit ‘n Go between them had to be held for the player to advance to the next round to be chosen. That player, the winner of the Sit ‘n Go, was Mike, and the rest, as they say, is television – and poker – history.