Hat shop management may not be the best breeding ground for championship level poker, but so far it’s working for Zachary Belinsky. The on-again, off-again manager at The Village Hat Shop in Old Sacramento, California won a $10,000 seat at the most prestigious poker event in the world by qualifying in a Las Vegas satellite event. He made it through the grueling sixteen hours of Day One and is now one of the 1,800 or so players left from a field of 6,358. The top prize is $8,250,000 and the top 621 finishers will be paid a minimum of $20,320. As an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, Belinsky applied his math background by teaching a two-credit class in blackjack, but upon graduation in 2001 made the switch to the hotter action at the poker tables. VillageHatShop.com is proud to be his sponsor – check out his visor. If Belinsky wins the 8.25 million dollars, The Village Hat Shop doubts whether he'll be back in the manager’s seat. "We'll miss him. He's been a good manager - a good hatter - but we just hope he remembers his roots if he wins big bucks," reports VHS top brass in San Diego.
