Kirk Morrison is a professional poker

Poker

Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...

 player originally from Wichita, Kansas

Wichita, Kansas

Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, but who has lived in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 for a part of his life between 1999 and 2006.

Kirk Morrison (who was 20 years old at the time) originally came to Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

 to play blackjack

Blackjack

Blackjack, also known as Twenty-one or Vingt-et-un , is the most widely played casino banking game in the world...

 full-time. When he started playing blackjack he had about $3,000 and according to Kirk it lasted him about 2 hours. After this he decided to get into poker instead.

Kirk Morrison was part of a group of young players in the 90's that included Daniel Negreanu

Daniel Negreanu

Daniel Negreanu is a Canadian professional poker player. He has won four World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour Championship titles. He is currently ranked second in the all-time career earnings list and is the star of poker game show Million Dollar Challenge. He plays a big...

, Layne Flack

Layne Flack

Layne Flack is an American professional poker player, residing in Montana and Nevada.He met up with Johnny Chan who helped him improve his game and, following a big loss, encouraged Flack to ensure he had a lot of rest before a tournament...

 and Allen Cunningham

Allen Cunningham

Allen Cunningham is an American professional poker player.Cunningham studied civil engineering at UCLA before dropping out of school to play poker professionally. At the age of 18, he began playing at in Indian casinos...

. After winning his first bracelet in 1998 he became very involved in sports betting and the big swings he endured because of his bad habit became the reason why he moved to New Zealand (from 1999–2006). He originally meant for his stay to last about 4 months, but it turned into 7 years. He avoided poker for the first few years he was there but eventually started playing in some Australian tournaments. It was at one of these tournaments where he met his old friend Daniel Negreanu. Negreanu convinced him to come back to the US and play poker.

Morrison's poker tournament

Poker tournament

A poker tournament is a tournament where players compete by playing poker. It can feature as few as two players playing on a single table , and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on thousands of tables...

 accomplishments include winning a 1998

1998 World Series of Poker

-Preliminary events:-Final table:-Other High Finishes:NB: This list is restricted to top 30 finishers with an existing Wikipedia entry.-External Links:*...

 World Series of Poker

World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker is a world-renowned series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas and, since 2005, sponsored by Harrah's Entertainment...

 title in seven-card stud

Seven-card stud

Seven-card stud is a variant of stud poker. Until the recent increase in popularity of Texas hold 'em, seven-card stud was the most popular poker variant in home games across the United States, and in casinos in the eastern part of the country. Two to eight players is common, though eight may...

 and winning second place at the Season Five

World Poker Tour season 5 results

- Mirage Poker Showdown:* Casino: The Mirage, Las Vegas * Buy-in: $10,000* 4-Day Event: May 14, 2006 to May 17, 2006* Number of Entries: 384* Total Prize Pool: $3,724,800* Number of Payouts: 36* Winning Hand: K-5...

 World Poker Tour

World Poker Tour

The World Poker Tour is a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting the final table of each tournament. It was started in the United States by attorney/television producer Steven Lipscomb, who served as CEO of WPT Enterprises , the firm that...

 championship event. This second place, which paid $2,011,135 is his biggest ever tournament cash. He has made three other World Series of Poker final tables, one in 1994 and two in 2007 ($5,000 Mixed Hold 'Em and 2,500£ H.O.R.S.E.).

As of 2008, his total live tournament winnings exceed $2,900,000. His 9 cashes as the WSOP account for $525,769 of those winnings.