From North Andover to Vegas: Card player lives his dream

Jon Maren, a real estate agent, won $56,019 with a fifth-place finish at a Vegas poker tourney last month. (Matt Mathis/IMPDI)

As a real estate agent, Jon Maren does a lot of driving, and last summer he had a vision. The North Andover resident saw himself in a dark room in a casino sitting on a stage, surrounded by TV cameras, playing with the best poker players in the world - and winning.

Nearing 50, Maren held onto that goal. Instead of spending his 50th birthday with friends and family, he would follow his dream: He would go to Las Vegas and enter the World Series of Poker.

On June 24, he sat down with 719 other card players to play Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low, a poker tournament variation of Texas Hold 'em, where the pot is split by the winners of the best and worst hands. Two days later, his vision came true - he had defeated 715 other players and was surrounded by TV cameras, poker pros, and a gallery of fans. He had finished fifth in the tournament, and was going home with $56,019 in winnings.

"I was stunned," said Maren, who grew up in Andover and describes himself as an amateur player. While he has made trips to Foxwoods and the card room at Rockingham Park, his three-day run at the poker table in Vegas - where he sat alongside TV poker luminaries such as Erik Seidel, Chris Ferguson, and Joseph Hachem - was truly a testament to his patience.

"My goal was to make it to the final table," said Maren, who like all other players paid a $1,500 entry fee and was given 3,000 chips. In the tournament at the Rio casino, players are eliminated once they lose all their chips.

Using a "tight-aggressive strategy" that calls for either folding immediately or raising opponents, Maren survived the first day, increasing his chip count from 3,000 to 38,000, as more than half the entrants were eliminated.

After 12 hours of playing, Maren returned to his hotel room and spent hours going over his strategy, amazed that he had survived the first day. "At first I was really nervous, but then I just started to think about every hand individually, and what's the best move you can make in the hand," said Maren, who noted that most winning hands were straights, flushes, and full houses, with the best low hands going to people who held A-5, or "the wheel" (a 5-high straight flush).

With just three hours' sleep, he returned to the tournament the next day with three lucky charms from his three children. In his pockets, he held his oldest son's school ID, a logo from his other son, and picture of Celtics guard Rajon Rondo that his daughter had given him. In another pocket he also had raisins to keep him fortified, and a bag of mints and TUMS to calm his stomach.

The second day proved to be a 12-hour marathon during which Maren was able to steadily increase his chip count by creating psychological profiles of his opponents. Mostly, he avoided direct challenges to pros, instead building his chip count with winnings over amateurs and semiprofessionals.

At the end of the day, with just 27 players left, Maren was seated at a "soft" table, with players who had fewer chips. One by one, players lost their chips, leaving Maren and nine others.

Just one position away from reaching the final nine, Maren defeated Daniel Klein with three 5s. That put Maren into the final nine and vaulted him into the position of board leader, with 377,000 chips.

After little sleep, Maren decided on a conservative strategy for the last day. He had reached his goal and made it to the final table, and as a finalist he had won a minimum of $19,656. By this time, longtime friends were calling and texting him every few minutes, following the game on ESPN360.com.

"I said no matter what you do, you've done great," said Michael Eggert, a Boston lawyer who started playing cards with Maren when the two went to Brandeis University in the 1970s.

Sean Szekely, another card-playing friend who is an Andover builder, also texted him frequently.

"He was like a kid in the candy store," said Szekely.

"I was texting him to let him know they were talking about him on the Internet."

On the final day, Maren decided to allow the more aggressive players to knock one another out. But by the time there were just five players left, he decided to take on Casey Kastle. Kastle won with just a pair of 6s, ousting Maren from the table but leaving him $56,019 wealthier. Soon, the game was over, with Germany's Martin Klaser winning $216,249.

Since returning home, Maren has put his winnings in the bank, and also has set aside $3,000 for next year's World Series of Poker.

While the experience hasn't changed his life much, it did boost his belief in his strategy.

"It was confidence-building, to get there and do it," he said. "There's a little tinge of not doing better, but I did make my big goal. And I did walk out with $56,000."

Steven Rosenberg can be reached at srosenberg@globe.com.