Buddhist poker player donates $600,000 win to charity

Buddhism and high-stakes poker may seem like odd bedfellows, but for Scott Wellenbach, they go hand-in-hand.

The Canadian poker player came in third at a poker tournament in the Bahamas, taking away $671,240 (£518,868).

As usual, he is donating all his winnings to charity, earning him the nickname "the people's hero".

"Being a practitioner of Buddhism, we sit around and meditate a lot - and that's free," he told the BBC.

When he's not buying in, Mr Wellenbach works as a translator of Tibetan and Sanskrit Buddhist texts for a religious non-profit.

He came to the religion as a young man, searching for a way to cope with the dissatisfactions of life.

Now age 67, he meditates for about an hour every day - but never more than when he is in a poker tournament.

"My personal discipline waxes and wanes," he said.

"Down here at the poker tournament, my discipline was excellent every morning! I was so desperate for a little glimpse of sanity in the midst of all this."