Ken Rosen has been playing poker for “as long as I can remember.” He was born, raised, and still lives in Miami Beach, Florida. After graduating from the University of Florida with a Masters in taxation, he went to work as a certified public accountant for the IRS, though he has also owns a real estate brokerage firm. It was during his youth that poker first came into his life. He recalled a time when he was six or seven years old, and his father asked him to sit in for him during a poker game. Ken won a big pot for his dad and fell in love with the game, having played ever since.

With a background in math, Ken has taken well to poker, but plays more for the enjoyment than any other reason. But he takes his game seriously, carving out about three occasions every week to play. Whether it is with friends or at the somewhat-local Hard Rock Casino in Florida, he looks forward to any time he can spend at the tables. And since live games aren’t yet approved for card rooms in Florida, it has been the tournament poker at Hard Rock that prepped him for the bigger tournament circuit. About five years ago, Ken made his first trip to a World Poker Tour stop in Reno and gave it a shot. While he didn’t make it past Day One, he continued to persevere.

After several WPT attempts, it was when Ken traveled to Las Vegas for the Five Diamond World Poker Classic that it happened. He played a $1600 super satellite and won his seat into the WPT $15,000 buy-in Doyle Brunson Classic. He made his way through hundreds of players and appeared at the final table. With some tough opponents surrounding him, he ended up finishing fourth for his greatest tournament cash to date of $433,675.