Retired New York City policeman Mike Kosowski didn’t expect too much excitement after retirement. A cop’s excitement is supposed to be spent on the force, not after retiring from it, right? Such was not the case for former officer Kosowski who recently won $1 million playing poker.
Mike Kosowski was one of the first officers to respond to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City. He was injured on that fateful day and due to this, and could never perform his duties the same since. In 2004, he decided to retire from the police force, taking up the poker card game to help pass the time.
Kosowski had no idea that his boredom-relieving decision would result in such a prolific, life-changing event just 5 years down the road.
Mike Kosowski told the New York Post, “With my injury I was getting lethargic, out of shape. My wife noticed this.” One day he and his wife were watching a poker game on television. The session included famed professional poker player Daniel Negreanu. Kosowski’s wife challenged her husband to beat him.
“She said, ’What do you have to do to become [a player] like that?’ I said ‘I’d need a miracle’”. But that wasn’t the end of the fantasy-supporting conversation. “One day I’m going to play him face-to-face and I’m going to win,” Mike told his wife.
Mike was a member of the online poker site PokerStars, the same poker site where Daniel Negreanu carries the status of Team PokerStars Pro. Kosowski played an online qualifier tournament at PokerStars that awarded him the Million Dollar Challenge – a chance to play pro poker player Daniel Negreanu heads-up on the FOX television network.
The episode of PokerStar.com Million Dollar Challenge will air December 27th, 2009 on the FOX television network.
Kosowski claims he owes his million-dollar victory to his years working as a New York City detective. “I said this guy’s a pro. If he gets a chance to read me he’s going to pick me off. So being a detective sergeant, I couldn’t let that happen.”
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