Player Returns to WSOP Against Medical Odds

Before the summer of 2013, the poker community was familiar with Kevin Boudreau, a young poker player nicknamed Phwap. He was one of the Ship It Holla Ballas group and a respected member of the online and live poker spheres.

Just as the 2013 WSOP began, Boudreau was outside of the Rio in Las Vegas for a tournament break when he collapsed. He was taken to a local hospital, where it was determined that he had a serious stroke from a condition called cerebral arteriovenous malformation. The energetic young man was confined to a coma in a Las Vegas hospital and given the prognosis of a very long recovery.

Boudreau’s family needed money to supplement the insurance for his medical bills and to transport him back to their Colorado home for long-term care. That was when the poker community stepped in. A fundraiser began and accumulated more than $50,000 throughout the rest of the WSOP.

His father, Jim Boudreau, has been in touch with the poker community to update everyone on Kevin’s slow but steady recovery over the past year. And longtime friend Peter Jetten had been to visit Kevin in Colorado.

On the one-year anniversary of Kevin’s collapse in Las Vegas, Jim brought Kevin back to the Rio for a little poker. Since Kevin is still in the early stages of a long recovery, he didn’t play a bracelet event, but Jetter, the Boudreaus, and friends like Justin Bonomo gathered for a single-table tournament.

Kevin finished third, and Jim chopped heads-up for the win.

Phwap may be on his way home to Colorado, but he is confident he’ll be back next summer to play a WSOP event.