Big winner, small spender

On July 15, Ian Tavelli of Santa Rosa was a 21-year old senior at Arizona State, in a $500-a-month apartment in Tempe. He dressed like a college student, ate like a college student and had the one single basic focus of most college students, making grades.

Eight days later, Tavelli received a check for $500,557 and had nightmares for the next two nights.

?I kept replaying what happened, what I could have done differently,? Tavelli said. ?It wasn?t because of the money. It was because I hate to lose.?

Of the 6,492 players who started the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, Tavelli made it to the final two tables, climbed as high as 17th before busting. So what happened next for this college kid, after the nightmares stopped?

What happened to a 21-year old who woke up on the morning of July 24 and found he had $300,000 (after taxes) spending money? Did he go for the Hunter Thompson scorched-earth policy, putting together nights of debauchery and wonderful, wretched excess that left the eyeballs red and a migraine that felt like a 7.9 on the Richter Scale?

This is how Ian Tavelli handled new-found wealth and, at the outset, you should know this is not a cautionary tale. This is not a story of poor judgment and police custody and regret and embarrassment. This is a story, frankly, as remarkable as winning a half-million dollars in eight days.

Tavelli, who graduated from Montgomery High in 2006, waited two months before he did anything with the money. Two months. Not two hours, two days or two weeks. The wait was purposeful. The wait would separate Tavelli from temptation, from impulse enthusiasm, from a sudden decision that would squander common sense, not to mention the money.

When he went back to ASU for the fall term, Tavelli ? whose major is global business finance ? found himself in the most unique and ironic of situations.

?I took a class on investments,? Tavelli said. ?Our assignment: ?If you had $100,000, how would you invest it?? The smile on Tavelli?s face as he said that, well, it looked like a smile of someone who just won $500,000 playing Texas Hold ?Em.

Oh, what a class sensation Tavelli would have been, raising his hand for his professor and saying, ?Actually, I have $300,000 to invest.? Instead, Tavelli did the smart thing, totally consistent with his personality.

?I didn?t tell the teacher,? he said.

Tavelli went back to his $500-a-month apartment and sat on the money and sat on the money and then it came to him, the first thing he should do with it.

?I bought a puppy,? Tavelli said. ?I always wanted a puppy.?

I told him it must have been one heck of a puppy.

?It is,? he said. ?It?s a English bulldog. A pure-bred.

Its name is Unagi, after the sushi dish. Unagi cost a thousand bucks. That meant sushi-lover Tavelli still had a little money left over, about $299,000, give or take a twenty. Shortly thereafter, Tavelli made his second and only other purchase. It was a little bigger than a puppy and cost $36,000 more.

?I always wanted a Porsche,? Tavelli said.

Tavelli walked into a Tempe dealership with his dad, Robert, a Santa Rosa businessman. Ian was dressed like a college student, jeans, T-shirt, tennis shoes. Robert wasn?t dressed like a college student. He was dressed like someone who wanted to buy a Porsche.

?How can I help you, sir?? the salesman addressed Robert.

?I want to buy a Porsche,? Ian told the salesman.

The salesman glanced at Ian and, as Ian remembers it, shot him the ?Yeah, right,? look.

?So what do you do for a living?? the salesman asked Ian, playing along, his curiosity aroused.

?I don?t have a job,? Ian replied.

It was about that time that Ian became as invisible as any living, breathing human being can get to another standing just four feet away. Ian at that time could have said, ?Yeah, and watch me as I balance a beach ball on my nose,? and the salesman wouldn?t have noticed. Ian might as well have been talking to Unagi.

When it came time to buy the used 2007 black Porsche, Ian forked over the money to the salesman and suddenly Ian had his newest, bestest friend.

Robert and Ian had a good chuckle over it but it didn?t take long for the giggling to stop.

?I didn?t know how to drive a stick shift,? Ian said.

Robert, on hand to provide veteran leadership on buying a car, now was there to provide a patient and loving hand teaching his son how to drive a manual transmission. Robert needed all the patience and love for Ian because a Porsche is a touchy beast of a machine that, typically, is not a starter car. Especially one with only 12,000 miles on it.

?I stalled it at the middle of every intersection,? Ian said. ?Every intersection.?

While Tavelli was saying this, he was shaking his head the way someone who is 7 feet tall keeps hitting his head on the door jamb.