Chance Kornuth

Chance Kornuth is a professional poker player who has his first live-event cash in 2008. In the first 3 years of his career, Chance cashed 18 times, made 7 final tables, made the money in 3 WSOP events, won a gold bracelet, and earned over $756,000. During that time he was also a highly successful online poker player, earning over $1.3 million.

Born in June 1986, Chance was raised in Denver, Colorado, where attended Bishop Machebeuf Catholic High School. He went on to study architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder where he discovered poker. It wasn’t long before Chance began building a sizeable bankroll online, and a semester short of earning his degree, he decided to quit school and focus on a poker career.

Before Black Friday, Chance played online as “Chances Cards” at Full Tilt Poker where he earned nearly $1 million, with his largest cash being $102,600 which he earned in the MSOP Main Event in 2010.  Other cashes on Full Tilt included a runner-up finish for $100,000 in a 2009 FTOPS event, and winning a $75k Guaranteed for $27,000. At PokerStars, Chance earned over $373,000 playing as “ChanceCU,” where he won a Super Tuesday event for $68,000.

Chance made his first live-event cash in 2008 at the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic when he took 15th in the $2,000 NLHE to earn $3,000.  His next pair of cashes was when he made the money at the 2009 WSOP and at the River Guaranteed $3 million Poker Series Thackerville, where he took 39th in the $2,000 NLHE Main Event to earn $9,000.

In 2009, Chance cashed 6 times, starting with 3 cashes at the Deep Stack Extravaganza where he was runner-up twice. After making the money in the $340 HORSE, Chance finished runner-up for $8,830 in both the $500 NLHE, and the $550 PLO. Two months later, he celebrated his 24th birthday at the 2009 WSOP. After an intense heads-up battle where both players were from Colorado, Chance prevailed to collect his first bracelet for taking down the $5,000 PLO to earn $508,090. To end the year, he finished 18th for £21,000 in the £5,000 NLHE Main Event at the EPT/ UKIPT Grand Final in London, and was runner-up in the $4,750 NLHE at the NAPT Los Angeles to earn $56,200.

Chance started 2011 by cashing 3 times at the Deep Stack Extravaganza, where he finished 3rd in the $1,590 NLHE Main Event for $42,412. After cashing at the WSOP, the Legends of Poker, and the Festa Al Lago, Chance was back at the Deep Stack Extravaganza to win the $ 340 NLHE and earn $47,829.  A cash at the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic followed, and to end the year, he finished 15th in the Epic Poker League’s $1,365 NLHE Pro-Am Event.

To be closer to his favorite Pot Limit Omaha cash games, Chance now makes his home in Las Vegas, where he focuses on improving his Omaha game with roommate Ben Lamb. Although Chance, thinks he will eventually finish college and earn his degree, for now school is on the back burner.

Unlike other poker pros that have given up college without looking back, Chance doesn’t advocate giving up education for poker. He discourages other young players from following a similar path, and thinks dropping out is a bad thing, saying, “college has a very specific purpose. I think you go not only to get an education and to determine which career path you want to choose but also to become worldly, and try to deal with other people. That\’s what I got out of college, becoming more worldly.\”

When he is not playing poker, Chance enjoys Football and Basketball, especially watching his favorite teams, the Denver Broncos, and the Denver Nuggets. He also watches the Dallas Mavericks and his favorite athlete, Shawn “The Matrix” Marion.