22-year-old Mike student grinds out million dollar win

The trend for young players winning the big tournaments continues in early 2006 with news reaching us that a quiet 22-year-old student from Minneapolis, USA has won the prestigious PartyPoker Million V, taking home the $1 million first prize.

Hot on the heels of 19-year-old Jeff Williams’ win at the European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monte Carlo, not much older 22-year-old Mike Schneider was roared onto victory in the fifth running of the PartyPoker Million by 15 supporters from home.

The tournament took place aboard the ms Westerdam, cruising the Caribbean this past week. Schneider beat veteran player Kenna James into second place, and Scott Buller, the first player to make two PartyPoker Million final tables.

Buller, of Lincoln, Nebraska, was eliminated in third place with a very nice $500,000 cheque as consolation, bringing his total PartyPoker.com Million winnings to nearly $600,000. James, of Las Vegas, claimed the largest payday of his career with a second place $700,000. His biggest previous payday was $588,210 for a second place finish in last year’s Legends of Poker at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles.

Other competitors to make their way through the field of 528 to make the final table were two PartyPoker.com online players Drew Chitiea, a corporate pilot and flight instructor from Colorado, and Richard Joel, a retired businessman, from Atlanta, joined in the fun, happy to take home $300,000 and $225,000 respectively.

The sixth competitor was Devon Miller, an up-and-coming 21-year-old pro from Los Angeles with a reputation for being a Limit Hold’em specialist. He was the first to exit and collected $175,000.

But the day belonged to Mike Schneider, and his band of vocal followers. Schneider could only say that he was “shellshocked” at his victory, but he certainly didn’t show his anxiety under the spotlight. Asked what he was thinking behind his stoic poker face, he admitted: “oh God, oh God, oh God!”

Currently at the University of Minnesota studying journalism, he is planning to graduate in fall 2006, and has paid for his education through his poker winnings. The native Minnesotan began playing in home games four years ago, and graduated to his hometown card room, Canterbury Park at 18, the legal age in Minnesota.

In 2003, he began playing online with PartyPoker.com. The PartyPoker.com Million is only his second high stakes tournament. Wisely, he hopes to put some of his PartyPoker.com winnings into investments, after building up his bankroll a bit and tucking some away for day-to-day expenses.

Schneider wasn’t sure he would make it past the first three hands on the second day of the tournament, when he ended day one with a small stack of 5,500 chips. “I had two dreams that night,” he said, “one that I would bust out and the other one that I would build back up to 150,000 chips. That second dream was pretty close. But I sure didn’t have a dream that foresaw a million dollars!”

Buller, who has been aboard all five PartyPoker.com Million cruises noted that the event has changed significantly since its inauguration. “The young players have changed the whole picture. My first year there were maybe 20 guys under 30. Now we have a boatload of them and at 49, I’m considered an old guy. But there is no doubt they deserve to be here. It’s no accident that Michael Schneider is holding that $1 million cheque. He played tough and he deserved it.”