It’s highly unlikely that Arizona’s Ned Shabou regrets his decision to give up his day job and pursue a career in professional poker.

At 47 finds himself 12th in chips out of 446 remaining players entering the second day of the 2009 World Series of Poker’s second event, a $1,500-buyin No Limit Hold’em tournament. The tournament began with 3,929 players, the largest field in WSOP history, not counting the main-events.

The top 378 players will get paid, with first prize coming in at an enticing $831,279.

Shabou said his strong first day effort was a combination of smart play and some good old fashion luck. “For the first time in my life, seven times I had pocket aces,” Shabou said. And five times I had pocket kings. I never lost once. That was an incredible day.”
Shabou said he was also credits his winning streak to his ability to get strong reads on his opponents who tried to bluff him.

To date, Shabou’s top cash was for $87,875 at a preliminart event from the World Poker Tour’s Legends of Poker last August in Los Angeles. He has won previous WSOP cash, earning $2,860 for a 53rd-place finish in a No-Limit event in 2005.