Trader Ranks 18th in Poker World Series

David Einhorn, founder of $3 billion hedge fund Greenlight Capital LLC, was knocked out of the World Series of Poker last night, taking 18th place and winning $659,730, which he plans to donate to charity.

The 37-year-old trader wore his lucky blue sweatshirt covered with paint handprints of his wife and three kids in the ``No Limit Texas Hold'em'' tournament, which began last week in Las Vegas with 8,773 contestants. He was briefly in second place this week after taking a $7 million pot. His winnings will go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.

``I didn't have any expectation that I'd be in the final 27 players,'' said Einhorn of his first World Series of Poker appearance. ``I wanted to play well, and I was hoping to get lucky and have a good time.''

He started playing poker a few years ago, after his mother gave him a book for his birthday written by Michael Konig, who recounted his experience in the World Series of Poker. Konig was a neighbor of Einhorn's and used to baby sit him as a child in Milwaukee. His interest piqued, Einhorn read more books, started playing with friends and entered charity events.

Einhorn came in fifth last year in the event, beating fellow hedge-fund managers including Ken Griffin, head of the $12 billion Citadel Investment Group in Chicago.

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