Last Sunday, Jeff Williams flew into Las Vegas from his hometown of Atlanta with the intention of hanging out with some friends from his poker playing days and maybe playing one or two World Series of Poker events for old times sake. It was supposed to be a short trip – just a few days.

“I played the $5K Six Max for a couple of minutes, fresh off the plane,” joked Williams. That turned out to be the only brick so far though. After busting that one he played the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event and finished 273rd for a little better than min-cash. The next day he jumped in the $1,000 Super Turbo Bounty event and wound up 37th for $3,862.

He had one more day on his planned trip but registered for the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha – a three-day event – anyway. He bagged just under an average stack on Day 1 with 138 players remaining, just seven bustouts from his third cash of the week. Then he outlasted another 120 players on Day 2 and bagged up the fourth biggest stack heading into Day 3. Not long after play resumed on Friday afternoon, he was one of just nine players left in the field with $231,482 and the WSOP bracelet up top.

While his eventual payout has increased along the way, Williams jokes that the big winner has been Delta who have collected a decent chunk of change fees from him over the last three days.

Williams, who won the European Poker Tour Grand Final at 19 years old, and has just over $1.2 million in online poker tournament winnings, doesn’t play much poker these days. He and his wife Lauren had their first baby last year and earlier this year Williams started living that entrepreneur life.

“Family man now. It’s been a lot of change, but it’s awesome. Life’s really different, but it’s really cool,” said Williams. “So, family takes up a lot of time, but I’ve also got a small venture fund in Atlanta with some friends of mine, we’ve been going out and finding cool companies and investing in some stuff. We’ve got some exciting prospects but nothing that’s hit yet.”

Williams, who earned €900,000 for his EPT win, looks back on that time of his life as one full of special moments, including having his mom and dad jump on a plane on the second to last day of the Grand Final to come to Monte Carlo and cheer him on.

“Not knowing if I was going to still be in or not, which in hindsight, was pretty reckless. They could have just come and i was like ‘Got 11th – sorry guys, no show’. So seeing them surprise at the final table was pretty wild,” said Williams.

He also didn’t get to take home the huge glass trophy he was presented with for winning. He was given a much smaller replica which now sits on a shelf inside the home he and his wife built in an Atlanta suburb. The poker-playing Williams is now really a thing of the past. He’s more focused on his family and business, but his little girl is clearly the jewel of his eye.

“I look back and, fond memories of course, but it’s a different time of my life and having fun with what I’m doing now and had fun with what I did back then,” said Williams. “Family, definitely. There’s that first year, getting to spend time with the little baby girl. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s been amazing.”