BY TOM SOMACH

In a profession where luck is often a major factor, Friday the 13th proved more than unlucky for a professional poker player from Las Vegas.

The poker pro–William “The Manipulator” Gustafik–who finished 280th in last year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) and won almost $39,000, was found dead in his Las Vegas condominium on Friday, April 13, and his widow is suspected in the murder.

According to media reports out of Las Vegas, Gustafik, 44, who split time between Las Vegas and Sam Ramon, Calif., was found stabbed to death in the couple’s Panorama Towers condo near the famed Las Vegas Strip.

According to police, his then wife/now widow Jill Rockcastle, 47, stabbed Gustafik to death after a heated argument in the condo, and then fled to California, where she was apprehended, the reports said.

Gustafik was a former chiropractor who turned poker professional in 2005 when he entered his first tournament, the WSOP, and finished out of the money.

Since then he participated in numerous WSOP and World Poker Tour (WPT) events and finished in the money nine times, for total winnings of about $167,000.

Included in those earnings are $38,759 won by finishing 280th out of 8,773 participants at the 2006 WSOP no-limit, Texas hold ‘em main event, and $80,000 won by finishing 10th in an ‘06 WPT hold ‘em event.

Rockcastle was apprehended in San Luis Obispo, Calif., home of the famed Hearst Castle, on Monday after she checked into a bed-and-breakfast inn and passed out, media reports said.

She is to be extradited to Las Vegas and charged with murder, the reports said.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)