Gambling on a dream

Ottawa’s Marc Karam turns passion for poker into a winning hand

They say it takes five minutes to learn to play, but a lifetime to master the game of poker.

At only 27, Marc Karam is well on his way.

The Ottawa man made more than $2 million in the past two years playing professional poker in tournaments online and around the world.

“I am living the dream,” he said from the Rio Casino in Las Vegas last week, where he’s one of about 2,000 people playing in the World Series of Poker this month.

“If you could ask me anything I want to do — it’s probably this.”

Karam, who was born in Montreal, moved to Ottawa’s south end when he was two.

The St. Patrick’s High School grad, who now has a home in Findlay Creek, “fell in love” with the game at age 19 when first sat down at a card table with a few buddies.

He started practising online in order to beat his friends and realized the game fit perfectly with his strong “card and math skills.”

“For the past seven years I’ve played almost every day. I rarely missed a day, it’s just practise, practise, practise.”

That regiment started paying off.

In late 2001, he started playing micro-stakes home games and small Ottawa tournaments. He put some money online to build a poker bankroll and started playing $1 no-limit hold ‘em.

‘JUST FOR FUN’

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