Michael Vela Bio

If asked what he considers his home casino, Mike Vela will tell you it's Foxwoods. He's done well there, and in early 2007, he made back-to-back prelim final tables during the World Poker Tour Foxwoods Poker Classic.

After reaching the final two tables of WPT events twice, finishing 13th in the 2006 World Poker Finals and 18th at the 2007 Borgata Poker Open, he was determined to make a final table.

Vela won a $1,100 supersatellite at Borgata for which he received a $40,000 package that included $10,000 in cash, entry into the WPT Borgata Poker Open (where he finished 18th), entry into the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open (in January 2008), and an entry into the 2007 World Poker Finals. This time at the WPT, not only did he make the televised final table, he won the coveted WPT title along with more than $1.7 million.

Vela is the senior vice president of an investment company, and he's been playing poker for four years. Between work and poker, this native New Yorker still sets aside time for his two kids, and coaches his son's baseball team.