Bernard Lee of Wayland could relax last week in Las Vegas, “just reflecting on a great week” that saw the 35-year-old parlay a free pass from PokerStars.com into $400,000 in the main event of the World Series of Poker.

Lee placed 13th among the record 5,619 players who entered the tournament July 7. The grand prize was $7.5 million.

Lee, 35, came just a few chips shy of reaching the final table of nine players, which would have guaranteed him at least $1 million. But his pair of kings did not hold up when chip leader Aaron Kanter picked up a third six on the river, or final card, in the Texas Hold’em contest.

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“I’m at peace with myself because I did the right thing,” Lee said, hours after his bad beat. “The only way to win it was to get to the next day, and you needed chips to do that.”

Throughout the week, the senior marketing manager from Natick-based Boston Scientfic, who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Harvard University in biology and an MBA from Babson College, held one of the shorter chip stacks but managed to hang on through shrewd betting.

The PokerStars coverage called “Dogger9” (Lee’s online moniker) “a crowd favorite” and a coming fixture on ESPN, which won’t air highlights until October.

His wife, Bolton physician Katie Lee, then will get to see all the excitement. She followed the action through Internet sites and break time calls from her husband.

“We’re proud of him,” she said. “It’s so surreal.”

Lee’s neighborhood buddies, who play with him in a weekly Wayland group called “Loker Poker,” also kept track.

“Ours is a pretty relaxed game,” player Charlie Tillett said. “But it was all business here.”

Lee’s father, brother, former college roommate and two Boston Scientific co-workers made the trek to Vegas to watch.

“It was a very emotional day,” Lee said.

But he is ready to come home and reunite with his family, including 2-year-old son, Noah, and 2-month-old daughter, Maya. He kissed their pictures before every big hand.

“They were my inspiration,” he said.

Source: Boston Herald