Card Sharks

Even before he entered kindergarten, Greg Shahade excelled at chess. In the two decades since, he has worked his way up to the second highest level, just below grand masters like recently retired world champion Gary Kasparov.

After living on a fellowship and then teaching for a couple years, he tired of trying to eke out a living as a professional chess player.

So two years ago, the 26-year-old turned to playing online poker and found, not surprisingly, that his analytical skills were perfectly suited for the card game.

He's made more than $100,000 during that time....

Additionally, Shahade has taken on a new poker project: teaching his younger sister Jennifer how to play. Although she's only been competing online since January, the two-time U.S. women's chess champion has already won some small cyber tournaments.

At first she was hesitant about online gambling, but she embraced it after her mother urged her to. "Jen, you should play poker," the matriarch said. "It's free money for smart people."

Read "Online poker: Easy money for smart people?" from The Poker Gazette.