“It was all very surprising,” Hung told People, referring to his reception on American Idol. “I didn’t expect that. I had no expectations going in other than thinking that it was going to be fun.”
“In this situation, very few people can stay on top for long,” he said, referring to viral fame. “So after a little while, I thought, I don’t want to waste my life, so I went back to school, finished my degree, and looked for a stable job. That was OK with me. I’d already gotten more out of American Idol than I ever could have expected.”
“I quit my job three years ago and became a professional poker player,” he continued. “I’d been doing it on the side for a while, and I decided maybe I was good enough to go for it. I was earning way more doing that than I was at my regular job. It was going well for a while.”
“Unfortunately, I developed a gambling addiction,” he explained. “I knew I was good at poker, but then I got greedy. I got into sports betting. The whole gamut. I know better 1705275881. I wasn’t supposed to do those things, but I did it anyway. And I paid for it. I got divorced, and I learned I had to be smart about which risks I chose to take.”
