Rene Nezhoda, familiar to millions of TV viewers as one of the stars of A&E's long-running "Storage Wars", won his first significant live poker tournament on Saturday, though he traveled all the way to South America to do it. Nezhoda took down the main event of the Americas Cardroom Enjoy Poker Tour in Punta del Este, Uruguay, for $70,455 and his largest-ever tourney win.
Nezhoda, who is an official "Friend of ACR" and regularly promotes the site at major events, traveled to Uruguay to compete in the main event, accompanied by his wife and "Storage Wars" co-star. Casey. Nezhoda ended up taking down the Punta del Este main, which drew 340 entries and built a $329,800 prize pool.
Nezhoda is a far more experienced poker player than most of the poker world realizes. As he detailed in a interview with Poker.org last January, he spent some time as a cash-game pro in Las Vegas before entering the storage-unit purchasing and reselling business in search of a more stable career. Then the "Storage Wars" opportunity came along, and the attendant fame offered him new poker opportunities as well, through his friendship with prominent people at ACR.
Though the Punta del Este victory is his largest live triumph, it's far from his only score at major events. Nezhoda's first recorded tourney cashes came in 2016 in a couple of World Poker Tour preliminary events. He's also made occasional trips to the World Series of Poker as his business schedule allows, and he just missed making a final table in 2019, finishing 13th in a super turbo bounty event.
The recent Punta del Este trip also saw Nezhoda make two deep tournament runs. Just before the main event, he finished 11th in a $ 3,000 + 300 No Limit Hold'em prelim for another $9,500 payday.
Featured image source: Americas Cardroom
