“Aggressive poker – that’s the only way I know how to play,” Ernest Bennett said. Lucky for him, aggressive play is what it took to make him a World Series of Poker bracelet winner and put him on the poker map.

Born in Canada, Bennett moved to the United States at a young age. He first started playing poker while in school when he was earning his B.S. in civil engineering. He eventually became the owner of a successful chain of dry cleaners, but continued to play poker as a hobby.

It wasn’t until about 2002 that Bennett started taking poker more seriously. He honed his game mostly by playing with friends and then in 2004 his efforts began to payoff in tournament cashes.

He has a string of cashes in smaller events starting in 2004, and attended his first World Series of Poker in 2006, testing out the No-Limit Hold’em Seniors event. It was his first major tournament, and though he didn’t go far, it didn’t deter him from trying again in 2007.

He made his way to Vegas to try out the Seniors Championship again, this time going all the way to the end. He went into the final table with guns blazing, using his aggressive style to dominate the table.

In the end, though, it wasn’t his poker play that got him the bracelet but his bargaining skills.

It got down to heads-up between him and Tony Korfman, author of Texas Hold’em – Tournaments, Cash Games and Embarrassing Social Gas and the Playing to Win Gaming Series. Instead of playing to the death, so to speak, the two men decided to chop the pot down the middle, and Bennett got to take home the bracelet.

“Earlier I told [Korfman] I admire him, and I didn’t want to play against him, and I told him we would chop if it got down to us two, so I kept my word,” Bennett told PokerListings.com. “I really wanted the bracelet, and I said that earlier to him. He did not care as much.”

It was definitely a finish for the record books, as both men went away happy, and Ernest Bennett got the WSOP gold he was coveting. Perhaps now that he’s sold off his business and won a big pot, we’ll be seeing more of him on the major tournament circuit.