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After just missing his first WSOP bracelet win the Costa Rican poker player Steven Thompson gets something even more valuable (read on).

Thompson earned $328,487 in the $3,000 Six-Max event with finishing runner-up.

This score will make an extraordinary difference in his life as it is by far the biggest score of Thompson’s career.

After struggling with addiction to gambling and drugs over the last three years, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. The addiction could have cost him his life, after already loosing his marriage and his happiness.

Thompson said:

‘I got shot because of the money I owed’.

‘When I started I was finding people to loan me money so I could play poker. Sooner or later I was asking for the same money but to do drugs and gamble in casinos. I went down deep.’

‘I don’t even know who shot me because I had a lot of different debts. I had like three or four really tough guys that I owed.’

‘They were threatening me and telling me if I didn’t pay they were going to kidnap me. I got beat up twice. It was bad. It was the worst three years of my life.’

‘Now I have another chance’.

New Chance 

As recently as a month and a half ago, Thompson’s life still was in danger over debts.

He met a backer who cleared his debts and put him back into poker. This was his chance.

In the main event of LAPT Panama he ended in 23rd place. Today he finished 21st in a $1,500 event in the WSOP in Las Vegas.

‘My backer told me he thought I had a good heart and was a good person’, Thompson said.

Thompson has been asking for a chance by sending letters to poker players all around the world with some fame.

‘Some answered, some didn’t some said to go f*** myself. But I kept doing it because I wanted someone to give me the chance to show what I’m capable of.’

His gambling and drug addiction had to stay in the past as Thompson has a son who was the biggest motivation to leave all the trouble behind.

‘I had to get out of it. I have a seven-year old son, he’s the best thing in my life.’

‘After I got divorced I don’t get to see him much so I just want to get back on track so I can be there for him’.

His long-time poker dream of playing in the WSOP Main Event has now been fulfilled, as well as a 100 per cent clearance of his debts.

‘Now I can pay off everything and be born again’.

 

 

 

 

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