Winning the $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em re-buy championship at the 2007 World Series of Poker is all the more impressive when the victor doesn't actually re-buy.

That was Michael Chu's strategy, and it worked for the Los Angeles native who scooped $585,774 for the win and a gold bracelet - his first. While others exercised their option to re-buy as many as eight times, it was the stock trader who saw the biggest return on his investment.

The young bachelor was born in Seoul, South Korea, and attended the University of California – Berkeley. Though he’s a regular at the Commerce Casino in L.A., Chu is relatively new to live tournament play: the 2007 event marked his first WSOP cash and he has only one other event result in a $300 Hold'em affair in Atlantic City to his credit so far.

Nonetheless, poker has been part of Chu's life for a long time, he told PokerListings.com after his first big success on the felt.

"I've always played poker, though the home games in high school and college, and I came out when everybody came out - when Rounders came out and a lot of kids started playing and it was kind of like the thing to do in college," he said. "I was always pretty good with numbers, so it was a good fit."