A Pennsylvania man who earned almost half-a-million dollars by winning a poker tournament at the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas says he’s going to donate all of it to charity.

Eric Brooks of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, USA, won WSOP Event #14, a $10,000 buy-in, 7-card stud tourney with 158 participants and a total prize pool of about $1.5 million.

The Top 16 finishers earned cash prizes.

For the victory, Brooks earns $415,856 and his first-ever WSOP championship gold bracelet.

He’ll keep the bracelet.

Not only was the victory his first-ever win at a WSOP event, it was the first poker tournament of any kind he has ever won.

Coming in second was Fu Bo Wong of Chandler, Arizona, USA, winning $259,910.

Third was Alexander Kostritsyn of Moscow, Russia, winning $163,372.

Fourth was Minh Ly of Temple City, California, USA, winning $118,816.

Fifth was well-known poker pro Erik Seidel of Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, winning $92,825.

Sixth was Jim Paluszek of Bensalem, Pennsylvania, USA, winning $74,260.

Seventh was Dave Oppenheim of Los Angeles, California, USA, winning $59,408.

Eighth was Vassilios Lazarou of Las Vegas, winning 48,269.

Ninth was well-known poker pro Phil “Poison” Ivey of Las Vegas, winning $37,130.

Tenth was Tom Weideman of Fair Oaks, California, USA, winning $37,130.

Other well-known names finishing in the money in the event were Daniel “Kid Poker” Negraneu of Las Vegas, who finished 11th; and Alex “The Mad Russian” Kravchenko of Moscow, Russia, who finished 13th.

As for champ Brooks, he told reporters after the big win that he will donate all his winnings to something called the Decision Education Foundation, a non-profit charity which he explained thusly: “It is an organization that I really believe in. I’m on the board and I joined a few years ago. Essentially, what we do is take the science of decision-making, which is something that’s university level, college course work, and teach the basic principles to grades Kindergarten through 12 around the country.

“Our mission is to make everybody aware that this fantastic curriculum is available and really what I call the forgotten subject of decision-making. It’s something that gets introduced in a formal matter to the classroom. We had a lot of success with it so far, and being able to add another $400,000 to it and what their doing in going to be pretty big. It’s the process of making a decision and then the application of how you use the decision-making skill.

“Our goal is to help kids, and possibly their parents as well, understand the process of what the right answers are. We don’t tell you what you should do, we help you make the structure and work through a rational process and discover for yourself what the right answer is.”

Reporters could only wonder how much of his decision-making expertise helped him win the tournament.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.) =A0