30 year-old Tom Sartori from Buffalo is using his fame at the poker table to boost his career onstage and in the recording business.

In fact, last week while in town competing with 450 other poker players in the Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship, he said the media attention is nothing but good for his budding music career. Even though he lost half-way throught the poker event, online poker players have learned that he picked-up about twenty grand in side games.  

Sartori came in 26th from over 5,600 entries in Harrah's World Series of Poker at the Rio over the summer. There, he won $300,000. That money was used to hire a producer, a Latin Grammy-winning mixer, and a publicist.

With the new hired help, Sartori created his first major album, All In, which will be released in late December.

Since placing among the top holdem poker players in the world, Sartori has become a target for every would-be poker player on college campuses around the country.

After all, he was playing in a band before he was winning poker games. Which came first, the poker or the music?

In fact, Sartori has been playing professionally since leaving high school. In the early years he mostly played small clubs in and around Buffalo.

Although his five-piece band mostly plays clubs and colleges in the East, he has toured five countries and opened for such artists as Meatloaf, 98 Degrees, Chuck Berry and Cheap Trick.