Big Deal: Springs Man Cashes In On Poker Play

A poker player from Springs won first place in a tournament and a whopping $650,223 at the 2011 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Athanasios Polychronopoulos, 27, overtook 2,712 opponents in the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em tournament. In addition to the prize money, he was presented with the coveted gold bracelet, which signifies the ultimate achievement in poker on July 2, according to a statement from the gambling organization.

He's also made his mark as the player with the longest name in the 42-year history of all World Series of Poker champions.

"I'm still dreaming," said 'Tom,' as he said most of his American friends call him, in an interview on Friday. "I got a little emotional as soon as it happened, but I still am dreaming. It feels good"

Polychronopoulos said he has most of his "toy-buying out of that way" after he won a cash prize of around $400,000 last year. After getting a couple of surf boards for himself and some nice bottles of wine from France and Italy, he said he wants to, "help out the family, keep playing, and make more money."

Many know his family, which owned Gordon's, now closed, in Amagansett. He also used to work at .

A successful poker player even before the World Series, he has already won $2 million in online poker. This was just his second entry at the World Series of Poker and his winnings there only totalled $5,207 until this win.

He began playing poker in 2003.

The top nine finishers sat at the final stable in Las Vegas on June 30 and the match-up ran eight hours. “Every single player played solid," he said in a statement from the organization.

"I came in fourth in chips. On the first hand, I tried to pull a pretty big bluff, and it failed, because he had trips. Once that first bluff failed, and I got it out of my system, it was easier for me. I just had to pick my spots after that.”

The runner up was Simon Charette from Pickering, Ontario in Canada, who still walked away with a $404,225 prize.

In an post-win interview, Polychronopoulos became so emotional when asked how his large family would feel about the win that he couldn't answer the question.

During the gold bracelet ceremony, the national anthem of Greece was played in honor of Polychronopoulos victory.