Tom Hare will admit that he has played poker throughout his life. Growing up was fun but a challenge in the projects of Philadelphia, but he mostly looks back on his formative years fondly. Though poker games were common in his youth, he never played much on a competitive level until recently. Most of his years were spent as a printer until he retired several years ago.

It was a friend of Tom’s who first took Tom out to play poker with friends about three years ago after Texas hold’em became popular. That friend, with whom he is still close, convinced him to take up the hobby since his kids were older and didn’t need him around the house all the time. It was not long after that he began to dabble in tournaments as well. He had a few results, such as a cash in an event at the 2006 Trump Poker Classic in Atlantic City.

Living on the East Coast, Tom became interested in the bigger tournaments. When the World Poker Tour came to the Borgata in January of 2008, his curiosity got the better of him. He played at the Borgata from time to time, so he took a drive over to play a satellite for the WPT main event, which he ended up winning. Just like that, he was in the big game all the way to the final table. He played well enough to make it to third place, where he was finally eliminated but took home over $380,000 for the effort.