High Stakes: Trio of Park Hill grads turning heads in pro poker world

It’s hard to find a lot of connections between the bright lights of the Las Vegas strip and Platte County, but three Park Hill graduates have been cashing in, literally, on a game that started in high school as a simple gathering of friends. Grant Hinkle (29), Blair Hinkle (24), and Blake Cahail (23) have all garnered national attention over recent years for their performances in the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

Poker may be an unfamiliar game to many and the WSOP can be complicating to outsiders. If you’ve ever seen it on television, it’s likely you are watching the Main Event, which acts as the culmination and championship of a WSOP season which spans from May to July each year. A prestigious and coveted gold bracelet, valued as high as $25,000, is awarded to the winner of the over 50 individual events each year.

In 2008, Grant won a WSOP bracelet for outlasting 3,928 competitors in one of the longest preliminary events ever, taking home $831, 462 in first-place money. Just two weeks later, younger brother Blair, won his own bracelet with a first-place payout of $507,613. The win made Grant and Blair the only two brothers to win WSOP bracelets in the same year.

“At the time I couldn't really believe it. It was pretty unbelievable that both Grant and I would win bracelets in a lifetime, let alone in the same year. I was so happy when I saw the cards run out that I probably jumped twice as high as I ever had in my life,” Blair said.

Just two weeks ago, Cahail attempted to join his friends by also winning a bracelet in the 31st event of the WSOP. The tournament was HORSE, which involves five different kinds of games of which eight hands are played allowing each player to hold a different position before changing the game.

“It’s pretty unique because a lot of the tournaments are just one game and players usually specialize in one game,” Cahail said. “You have to know how to play five different games well enough so you don’t loss all your chips in one game, and that’s the best way to have a chance to win a bracelet.”

Unfortunately, after making it to the final table of the tournament, Cahail was knocked out early earning him a seventh place finish, good for a pay-out of just under $28,000. Although short of his goal, it was his highest finish in a WSOP event up to this point and with the main event coming up July 5-7, Cahail hopes to have a few more opportunities before the end of the season.

Starting with recreational games in high school, Blair and Blake became roommates in college while attending the University of Missouri. There they began playing online poker and seeing quite a bit of success. It was enough success to build reputations around the country. They eventually found themselves being sponsored by different individuals for Las Vegas tournaments where their buy-ins were paid for in exchange for a share of their winnings.

“We were having pretty decent success on the online tournaments, so people knew who we were,” Cahail said. “I’ve gotten to know a lot of people I play with online because you meet them at these events after playing against them for so long online.”

By being involved in the game long enough, they’ve been able to see some of the growth it has experienced in the last decade and had interesting opinions on where poker will go from here.

“When (Chris) Moneymaker won the main event in 2003, it showed that an amateur could do it and it really took off from there. Over the last couple years growth has been kind of flat due to the economy, but I think it will start growing again once things improve,” Cahail said.

“It continued to grow until a few years ago when the economy dropped a little along with the ‘ban’ of online poker by the UIGEA bill,” Blair added.

With the high earnings they’ve accumulated in recent years, it was asked what the future held and how long they anticipated being professional poker players. The tremendous amount of success was enough to lure both Blake and Blair away from MU before graduating and it’s something they’ve both considered going back to finish.

“I hope the future holds a few deep runs in big tournaments, and maybe another bracelet or two. Within the next year or two I want to finish my degree and move back to Kansas City. I will still play poker but just not as much during the year,” Blair said. “One thing I can't see myself doing is skipping the WSOP so I am trying to figure out a job that would allow for it.”

“I dropped out of school when I turned 21 to do this full-time. I’m going to go back to school in the fall because I want a little break from it. I’m definitely going to be doing the World Series in the summer for the next couple years. It’s definitely nice doing something you love,” Cahail said.