Jun 10 2011
Latest WSOP Star: Former Spelling Bee Winner
written by: Will under News Comments: Comments Off
About 10 years ago, 
made weird-sports headlines when he dominated 249 other competitors to with the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Buddiga made it through 11 rounds of grueling adversity, finishing by correctly speling “prospience” and earning $12,000 for his victory.
Fast forward to 2011, and the stakes are much higher for Buddiga, as he’s deep into the money in a $1,500 buy-in Shootout event at the World Series of Poker and still going strong.
Buddiga said that it wasn’t difficult making the transition from spelling competitions to professional poker. During high school, he looked for other ways to express his competitive nature, and found an appropriate outlet when his friend got him into poker. His spelling bee wins gave him the confidence he needed to get started in a game that many newcomers find intimidating.
Though Buddiga is a native of New Zealand, he spent much of his young life in Colorado Springs before heading off to North Carolina where he shifted his focus once again, this time from poker to schooling at Duke University. He settled in at college by his junior year and found time to pursue online poker. In an interview with PokerListings.com, Buddiga said his game was finally starting to “peak” when Black Friday devastated the online community.
With his funds tied up in legal limbo, Buddiga saved up and asked his friends for a few small loans so that he could buy into the World Series of Poker. Buddiga hasn’t officially won any events, but as of now he’s guaranteed no less than $4k in the NLHE Shootout, meaning he’ll receive at least $2,500 profit.
Despite his recent success, Buddiga has no concrete plans to pursue poker professionally, although he says that that could change depending on how the rest of the WSOP goes. The recent college graduate is planning to play in up to 15 events, and if those go well, he may be looking at the game as a career.
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