Mike Kosowski wins Million Dollar Challenge

Poker News / Matthew Pitt / 23 December 2009 / 1 Comments

Mike Kosowski, a 53-year old from Staten Island, New York defied the odds to eventually defeat Daniel Negreanu heads-up to win a cool $1,000,000.

Kosowski, a 21-year veteran of the New York Police Department is a 9/11 hero. He was one of the first people on the scene of the atrocious terrorist attack of 2001 and was trapped with eight others when the south tower fell. Fortunately he survived but the back and leg injuries he sustained lead to his retirement from the force in 2004.

It was whilst recuperating from his injuries that he discovered online poker, which he used to play to take his mind off the pain he was enduring. By 2005 he had read Doyle Brunson's "Super System 1 and 2" and had started to take the game more seriously, though he still only plays for low stakes.

After qualifying for the fourth instalment of the show by winning a freeroll, Kosowski lost his opening match against super model Joanna Krupa but each of the remaining contestants also lost their opening matches so a one-off sit 'n' go was held and Kosowski emerged victorious.

Our hero then took on and beat each of the winners from the previous three shows, including Father Andrew Trapp the poker playing priest, before going head-to-head with Daniel Negreanu, the number one all-time money earner in poker. After a tense battle where Kosowski admitted he had a lot of good fortune, the former police officer defeated the his Canadian opponent and claimed the $1,000,000 first prize.

An ecstatic Kosowski has said he will pay off his mortgage, put some money away for his son's college fund and his daughter's wedding before donating to two charities, the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund and City Harvest. He even joked he would buy his pet dogs bigger bones and get them some new bowls!

Kosowski's poker journey does not end here as he has been given the opportunity to play in the PokerStars sponsored Caribbean Adventure in January, where he will rub shoulders with some of the biggest names in the business including Betfair's very own Sorel 'Imper1um' Mizzi.

Comments (1)

1. Snake_eyes | 06 January 2010

   I thought Mike Kosowski was the little green one with one eye from Monsters Inc?

   All the best for the New Year Pud!!