From Wall Street failure to poker champ: 'Very lucky not to be unlucky'

The collapse of Bear Stearns left executive Steven Begleiter without much of a plan, so he took his poker pot and went to Vegas.

Begleiter, the Wall Street firm's head of corporate strategy before it collapsed and was bought by JPMorgan Chase in 2008, took winnings from his hometown poker club and headed to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas that July. Adding $5,000 of his own money, he played in the $10,000 buy-in main event, No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em's world championship, and lasted three days, finishing just outside the money.

Now he's back, fully funded by poker-club winnings. Begleiter sits third in chips after outlasting all but eight of the 6,494 entrants over eight days in July to reach today's final table at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. Two players will meet Tuesday for the championship.

"I had never even played the main event when Bear Stearns got sold," said Begleiter, 47. "I played that first one shortly after that because I felt like, why not? How much worse can it get?"

With the help of steady play and many lucky flips of the cards, life has gotten better. Begleiter is guaranteed at least $1.25 million and would win $8.55 million with a main-event victory.

The Chappaqua, N.Y., resident is now a senior principal at the private-equity firm Flexpoint Ford in New York. After graduating from Haverford College outside Philadelphia, he spent 24 years at Bear Stearns and was a member of the investment bank's management and compensation committees.

The firm fell apart in March 2008, brought down by excessive leverage and large bets on subprime mortgage bonds. JPMorgan bought it with help from the Federal Reserve.

"It was a big part of my identity, and then it just goes poof," Begleiter said. "And it goes poof in a way that casts a lot of negative aspersions on the institution that I proudly represented for a long time."

While his background at the failed firm has led to some ribbing by commentators on ESPN, which is carrying the main event, Begleiter's play has made him a poker celebrity. He enters the final table with $29.9 million in chips, trailing only Maryland logger Darvin Moon ($58.9 million) and professional gambler Eric Buchman ($34.8 million).

"I've been very lucky not to be unlucky," Begleiter said. "I never ran a big hand into a bigger hand.

"It just shows you, life is a little bit like a poker game," Begleiter said. "You do well, you take a couple of tough beats, and you have to come back again."