by Mad Harper

When Aaron Clark told me he had given up college just ten hours short of graduating, I was a little bit disappointed. Chasing one's dream is great, but not when you're so very close to getting your degree. And I was even more alarmed when Aaron told me he'd just moved to Las Vegas. But this sweet, mild-mannered 23-year-old - originally from Bowling Green, Kentucky - knows what he's doing and has no intention of giving up academic life, however well this does this week.



Aaron been playing poker professinally for the last three years, and enjoying steady success. He only took up tournaments a few months ago and reckons Pot Limit Omaha is probably his strongest game. He said: "I'm doing pretty well, making about $100,00 a year. Obviously even if I bust out of the WSOP right now, I've made nearly half my annual income in a few days."

Aaron's biggest win to date was chopping a $55 Pot Limit Omaha rebuy at Caesar's Indiana to take home $17,500. But even on his days off from this tournament, Aaron has been playing poker online and actually won a $10 rebuy on PokerStars a couple of days ago, to win $11,900.

He said: "I was an economics student at Western Kentucky university and I intend to carry on with my studies. I just took a few months off to settle in here in Vegas but I'm going to finish off by correspondence course. My plan before I took up playing poker was to teach economics - and that's still what I intend to do. I like economics and I like teaching. But I want to put down a couple of million first."