By Emily Fobert
Walking up to the old red brick house on First Avenue in the Glebe, you would never guess it was the home of a millionaire. Nor would you guess from talking to the residents that their bank statement now reads $1 million.
Last month, Quillan Nagel and his wife Lisa left their simple Ottawa home for a trip to the Bahamas. One week later they returned $1 million richer.
For Nagel, a Carleton University graduate student who at the time was less than two weeks away from finishing his master’s degree in international affairs, his main priorities were graduating and finding a job to pay off his $30,000 school debt and support his family.
Now that he has completed his degree and no longer faces the pressures of debt, the family man is enjoying spending his time with his wife and their three-month-old daughter, Audrey.
At the age of 30, Nagel won his millionaire title in a hand of poker – or more accurately, many hands of poker.
This seemingly fictional story began last summer, when Nagel entered the free PokerStars Moneymaker Millionaire online poker tournament.
After five months of online poker games, he was ranked among the top 27 qualifying players out of 830,000 participants worldwide and was flown to the Bahamas to compete in the final tournament for the million dollar grand prize.
After 16 hours, the 27 players were narrowed down to two and in the end Nagel held the winning cards. His trick to winning was to try not to make any big mistakes and to focus on the game in spite of the high stakes.
“Not thinking about the money was really important,” he says. “If you start thinking about what you could lose, you are polluting your thinking, when you should really be thinking ‘do I have the best hand’ and ‘what’s the best call to make.’”
While Nagel was able to remain focused on the game, his wife, who was watching the entire tournament from the audience, had a harder time staying calm.
“When it got down to the final table I had a huge knot in my stomach, totally stressed out,” says Lisa. “The final few moments were a blur.”
Nagel only started playing poker regularly about two years ago, when he finished his undergrad degree and found he had some free time on his hands.
He started by playing smaller online tournaments and every now and then he would win a couple hundred or thousand dollars – money he used to help pay his bills. Up until his recent cash prize, his biggest win was only $2,700.
Nagel says he believes his poker skills come from studying the game and the hours of practice he’s clocked since he qualifying for the Moneymaker Millionaire tournament. Others say it’s because of his personality.
“He’s got such a calm demeanor when he’s playing, he doesn’t get nervous, which means he doesn’t give away anything. He’s cool as a cucumber,” says Joshua Snider, a good friend and poker buddy.
“Quillan is extremely logical,” Lisa says. “He is always thinking about odds and working strategies in his head. He is also extremely good at reading people and deducing what they are thinking [and] he doesn’t make decisions based on emotion.”
His calm demeanor, logical mindset and his remarkable focus transpire into every area of his life.
“When it comes to his studies and his work and his friends, everything he does, he’s just a very focused guy,” Snider says. “A very serious guy, but with a wicked sense of humor.”
Only three days after he returned home from the Bahamas, Nagel had to shift his focus from poker to politics to defend his thesis on U.S.-Iranian relations.
Although he says he was able to get back into the right mindset and hold his own in the defense, his nerves were harder to tame than during the poker tournament the week before. The consequences of losing, he explained, were greater.
“I mean the poker tournament you go and do the best you can but there’s nothing you can really lose,” says Nagel. “I was a little nervous for my defense because you never know what they’re going to say and failing would be awful.”
Although many people would think winning a million dollars would be a life-altering event, Nagel doesn’t see it quite the same way.
“It’s life-easing, I like to say, but to change our lives for the long run we have to be kind of conservative with it,” he says. “We don’t want to change how we live.”
By “life-easing” Nagel means he can take his wife or his friends out for dinner without worrying about the cost, bring his friends to hockey games, send his daughter to a good school and most importantly, spend some time enjoying life with his family.
“With a baby at home, prior to winning I had to be thinking about getting a job in the very near future. I don’t have the same pressure I would have had before so I can take more time to decide what I want to do.” .
Lisa considers the family time that can be gained from Nagel’s win more important than the money itself.
“For me the most wonderful part is that we can take a few months to be together as a family without working and Quillan can see all those special baby moments that he would’ve missed if he had to find a job right away,” Lisa says. “It’s those experiences that are worth so much.”
Of course, as much as they say their lifestyle isn’t going to change, it is quite a jump to go from the student life and $30,000 in student loans, to having $1 million US handed to them.
So on what luxury items has Nagel decided to spend his money? He’s buying his wife a Toyota Prius, a practical and environmentally-friendly hybrid car.
“We’re finally getting our first car!” Lisa exclaims. “I think with a baby, in Ottawa, in winter, we can justify that. I’m also switching to organic produce, which I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
The family is also looking to buy their first house, but are not rushing into any decisions.
They hope to move back to Toronto, where Nagel lived while earning his undergraduate degree and where Lisa will find more opportunities as a stage actress.
“It is a lot of money, but at the same time we know it can go very, very fast,” says Nagel.
“We’re taking our time, we don’t want to rush into it. So I have to win another million dollars and that we can squander,” he laughs.
Those who know him know that Nagel’s level-headedness will serve him well in his financial position. “He’s still the same old Quillan, just a little richer and a lot less in debt,” says Snider. “I don’t think money’s going to change him too much.”