Stolzmann won entry into the tournament by winning a $1,000 satellite tournament, giving him the $10,000 necessary to play the main tournament, according to the Daily Cardinal, a student newspaper at UW-Madison.

Taking a week off school to go play poker is usually a bad idea, unless you're John Stolzmann, a 23-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison senior. Stolzmann defeated 511 players at the Jack Binion World Poker Open in Tunica, Miss., to win $1,491,444 in the tournament's No-Limit Hold'em Championship.

Stolzmann won entry into the tournament by winning a $1,000 satellite tournament, giving him the $10,000 necessary to play the main tournament, according to the Daily Cardinal, a student newspaper at UW-Madison.

Stolzmann plans to go to law school, but will first take a year off school to play poker professionally. His father, Steve Stolzmann, told the Daily Cardinal his son would have played professionally no matter how well he did in the tournament.