Before playing poker professionally Greg Ostrander was a Calvin Klein underwear model and a Rochester, New York Sheriff’s Deputy. Now he’s a WSOP bracelet winner.
Ostrander pocketed $742,072 when he won Event 41, $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em, in Las Vegas Monday.
“One thing I’ve learned about poker over the years is that no matter how far you go in a tournament you feel defeated unless you win,” Ostrander told the media moments after clinching the victory against heads-up opponent Jackie Glazier.
Glazier was the tenth woman to make a final table so far at the 2012 World Series, and for the first stages of the heads-up match it looked like she’d be the first woman this year to win an open bracelet event.
This tournament was originally scheduled to play down to a winner last night but after playing heads-up for about a level, Glazier and Ostrander called it quits and returned today at 1pm to conclude the match.
And according to Ostrander, it was a good thing they did.
“Jackie was two different players yesterday,” said Ostrander. “When the final table started she was only playing premium hands but the minute we got down to three-handed she switched gears which was very difficult to play against.”
Jackie Glazier Continues Female Success at WSOP 2012
With a long list of final tables and big results female poker players have been making their mark at the 2012 World Series of Poker.
Jackie Glazier wins $458k, the biggest score of her career.
Jackie Glazier, the most recent example, made it very obvious that playing well at the poker table has nothing to do with gender.
“Unfortunately in poker guys think it’s a man’s world so I had a lot of friends telling me I was going to lose to a girl today,” said Ostrander of his heads-up match.
“So I knew that if I didn’t win I was going to hear about it for the rest of my life and that if I won I probably should have they’d think. But they don’t realize how well Jackie actually played. She was very, very tough.
“At first I kind of thought she was going to be easy to play against but honestly she got the best of me yesterday,” admitted Ostrander.
When the two returned this afternoon Glazier had a roughly 3 to 1 chip lead and she did a good job of keeping the pressure on in an effort to close out the tournament.
Ostrander managed a quick double-up to get out of the whole, flopping trips on a T♥ 6♥ 6♠ board and getting paid off by Glazier’s pocket eights.
Glazier managed to get those chips back over the next half-level but Ostrander doubled again with A-4 against Q-J all in preflop to get back near even.
On the final hand Ostrander turned a straight while Glazier turned two-pair. The money went in on the river, eliminating Glazier in second and making Ostrander’s victory official.
Here are the full final table results:
- Greg Ostrander - $742,072
- Jackie Glazier - $458,996
- Paul Vas Nunes - $290,407
- Morten Mortensen - $210,793
- Roger Fontes$ - 155,498
- Darryl Ronconi - $116,452
- Joseph Chaplin - $88,481
- Kyle Frey - $68,121
- Dylan Hortin - $53,126
“The funny thing was, even though I had a four-year degree I couldn’t find another job that paid what I had been making as a cop.”
From Model to Police to Poker Pro
Before finding his way to poker Greg Ostrander had two separate and very disparate careers, one as an underwear model and one as a New York State Sheriff’s Deputy.
For roughly 10 years Ostrander posed for brands like Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Banana Republic but, armed with a degree in Criminal Justice, he made the switch from modeling to police work.
But after eight years as an officer in Rochester, New York Ostrander was bitten in a confrontation with a detainee. The HIV test that followed prompted him to say goodbye to the police force.
Ostrander had been playing poker in underground games in New York leading up to that point but he didn’t leave the Sheriff’s Department for cards, at least not initially.
“The funny thing was, even though I had a four-year degree I couldn’t find another job that paid what I had been making as a cop,” Ostrander said of his post-police options.
While looking for work Ostrander continued playing poker, eventually embracing the game as a profession.
“Unfortunately you become good at poker by losing at first so when I started out I was very bad. But I was very determined to get better so I just kept playing and getting better and managed to turn it into a career.
“I never thought I’d be here,” he said, standing in front of a group of reporters before going to pick up his $742,000 check.
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