Steve Begleiter '84 jokingly calls the past year and a half“a tale of riches to rags to riches.” In 2008, he left Bear Stearns after 24 years with the company. Then, on July 15, the Chappaqua, New York resident finished as one of the final nine players in the World Series of Poker's Main Event, guaranteeing Begleiter winnings of at least $1.25 million. And he's not done yet.

This year, the annual Main Event, which is held in Las Vegas, changed its format: previously, the entire tournament took place over a few days and was televised months later; now, the final group of competitors will resume playing their hands this November. That means Begleiter and eight others will spend the next four months dwelling on the possibility of winning the $8.5 million prize.“I'm using this time to prepare, but I don't want to talk too much about it,” says Begleiter.“I'm reading as much as I can. It's like having 115 days to prepare for an open book exam at Haverford.”

Surprsingly, Begleiter isn't the first Ford to strike paydirt in poker. Richard Lederer '59, known for his nationally syndicated column“Looking at Language,” taught the game to his children, Howard Lederer and Annie Duke, who are now poker pros. Rich Kain '93 earned $208,000 on the third season of the World Poker Tour. And Matt Lessigner '96 was hired as a prop player to compete at the Oaks Club in California and spice up the action at the club's poker tables. He also wrote The Book of Bluffs, published in 2005.

Begleiter's rise to the top started the same way it did for many of the 6,494 players at this year's Main Event.  Essentially, a Texas Hold 'Em poker league (in his case, one that a friend of his started a few years ago) staked him the required $10,000 entry fee. “The catch is that the league gets 20% of whatever that person wins,”he says.

Some members of the league, who are euphoric at the results thus far, came down to Las Vegas to show their support, as did his wife Karen, whom Begleiter says kept him sane throughout the Main Event.“In a huge poker tournament like that, you have moments of self-doubt and deep gloom. You don't get through it without that support,” he says.

For Begleiter, now a Senior Principal at private equity investment firm Flexpoint Ford, the money he'll win this fall isn't the driving force.“Life is about relationships,” he says. The bond he's referring to is the connection he has with a huge group of supporters made up of former employees of Bear Stearns, where he spent his entire career after graduating in 1984, and left in June of 2008 after the investment bank was sold to J.P. Morgan.

“Bear Stearns was a great place to work and a lot of really exceptional people came out of there," Begleiter says. "We're scattered all over the place.” Begleiter says.“This brought a lot of people something to root for. I'm really touched to be seen as a former Bear Stearns guy accomplishing something.” In an ironic twist, his current office faces Bear Stearns' former home.

Begleiter has no concrete plans for how he'll spend his prize money, though he says he's not going to change his spending habits or his way of life after the final table is resolved. For now, he'll try to get over the shock of outlasting 6,485 other poker players and try to stop smiling. After all, he's got time to get his poker face ready.

--Charles Curtis '04