Max Steinberg thought poker was over.

It’s not like, “I’ll never play this game again.” Considering the more than $2 million earned over the last seven years as a professional player, there’s hardly any such scenario. But the 27-year-old was preparing for a change. He was preparing for something that would take him away from the waves of poker’s exhaustion and capricious emotions that inevitably come from becoming a professional poker player.

His “out” was one-day fantasy sports (DFS). In early 2014, Steinberg slowly started to turn his attention away from poker and toward DFS. He saw opportunities to make money on the sport’s spread as a player and businessman, and by the end of the year he had made a living playing one-day fantasy sports and started a new website with his twin brother Danny and another friend Nick Jerskewitz. 파워볼게임

Ironically, however, Steinberg’s success at DFS returned to poker as he got the chance to grab the most coveted prize in the game: the poker main event bracelet.

In April, Steinberg began participating in the main event satellite tournament at DraftKings. Of course, after tactfully loading his lineup with Golden State Warrior bench players, expecting the starters to relax while already receiving the first-place playoff seeds, Steinberg fled the field with more than 500 participants in the $27 tournament to win tickets to the main event.

By making it to the finals, Steinberg has already turned $27 into a million. Within weeks, he will have the chance to cash in on more than $7.6 million at the Rio All-Suit Hotel & Casino, and of course he will earn a place in poker history by winning the main event.

“It was undoubtedly a wild gesture,” he says. “A couple of months before the main event, I stopped playing because I didn’t play poker well. This summer I started playing a little bit more, went to five World Series games, and didn’t cash in on any of them. It was disappointing.

“I was going to play in the main event no matter what. But I got a satellite by chance. Then, I managed to play really well, heat up, and relax. That’s why I came here.”

When he sits at the last table, Steinberg will have the fifth-largest stack, more than 40 million behind Joe McKeon, a large stack with 63.1 million chips. But as of Nov. 9, he is one of the more experienced players, potentially the most dangerous, with a WSOP bracelet and 11 career WSOP cash.

In addition to the bracelet, which won an unlimited event that earned $440,238 in 2012, Steinberg’s other career highlights were his 131st place after advancing to day five of the main event in 2013 and second place at the 2012 World Poker Tour Legend of Poker main event in Los Angeles.

“I had a lot of deep experience in the tournament and it helped me get here, and hopefully it will help me in the finals,” he said. “But experience can only take you so far. I want to be a less experienced player and have Joe’s cool big stack.”

Steinberg is grateful for the three-month break to go to the finals, but professionally for him, this pause comes at a time when it is no longer an opportunity. With the start of the soccer season in September, he is extremely absorbed in DFS, both as a player and managing his website.

But Steinberg isn’t complaining. DFS is his job now. He and his partners fully predicted that the game was ready to explode, like online poker games in the early 2000s.

“My brother and I were a little late to join the online poker game, and we swore that if we saw another opportunity like that, we would jump right in,” explains Steinberg, a Fairfield, Iowa native who now lives in Las Vegas. “We saw DFS take the same arc as online poker and we jumped into it.

“I wasn’t a fantasy sports expert at the time, but I put in a lot of time and dedication at the right time and it was very satisfying and exciting.”

With the soccer season approaching and a few weeks away from winning the main event, Steinberg has fallen into some time trouble. The website has only one staff, so he and his partners are responsible for most of the detailed tasks, and as a player, he submits 10 to 20 lineups a day to baseball and more than 100 to soccer, his most profitable sport.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to focus on poker and prepare for the last table,” he said. “But I don’t think I had to prepare for four months. I’ll take the time to prepare (in October) and that’ll be enough.”

He will do so leaning on a successful network of poker professional friends, including Cyrus Watson, who came in 22nd at the 2012 main event, Ben Sulsky, famous for “Source 123” in the online poker world, and his brother. Steinberg will plan a final table simulation so that his friends can play the roles of other players.

Another part of his final table arrangement includes his wardrobe. Steinberg often stood out by wearing a full suit and tie during main events, and he wore two new suits specifically designed for the final table.

“My philosophy is that you want to dress for every big moment in your life, and this has the potential to be a big one,” he says with a smile.

And don’t be surprised to see Steinberg’s family and friends follow the “suite” and dress for the event.

“I was told they could all wear suits, which would be awesome,” he said. “It’s going to be interesting. I might not have the biggest supporters in the crowd, but I bet I’m willing to wear the loudest and best clothes. Hopefully I can stay hot, keep my luck, and succeed in winning the whole game.”