Chad Power Making MGM National Harbor His New Home

On December 8th, the $1.4 billion National Harbor opened in Maryland and such was the casino resort’s popularity that the following day MGM management issued a warning that those people without reservations should consider visiting the venue at a later date.
One person who did manage to make it past the doors, however, was Chad Power, a professional card player from neighboring Pennsylvania who was hoping to find casual poker players with more money than experience. What he was particularly interested in, though, was finding a high-rolling “whale”, and as he explained in a Washington Post article recently such opportunities usually come with a limited shelf life:
“That stuff usually lasts about a year,” said Power “Eventually, he’ll do his taxes and say ‘Oh my gosh, I blew $400,000 gambling.’?”
It wasn’t long before he found his mark, either, after spotting a player sitting down at a poker table with $25,000 worth of chips in front of him. Nevertheless, Powers was there mostly to scout out the potential of the new casino resort, and rather than going after the action on his own, he runs a team of around six players who he coaches and stakes in return for 50 per cent of their winnings.
Together, they organize shifts at various card rooms, and the opening of the new MGM National Harbor has now been catapulted to the top of their must visit list. In fact, Power and his team have already rented a crash pad nearby. In the meantime, professional players such as these are welcomed by the casino, as in addition to gambling for hours on end, they also present a challenge for poker enthusiasts looking to pit their skills against some of the game’s best. As the casino’s poker room manager, Johnny Grooms,explains:
“Basically, if he can provide two or three people from his team for games at [the higher-stakes] level, it makes it that much easier for us to get those games started.”
Power got off to a good start at his new “office”, too, and apparently made $8,000 on his first full session that lasted eight-hours. According to Power, a cash game specialist, he usually expects to make between $400,000 and $800,000 a year from his poker endeavors. He has also enjoyed some success on the poker tournament circuit in the past, too, and in 2015 finished the WSOP Main Event in 26th place for a $262,574 payday.