0 investment in their son’s fledgling poker career five years ago has suspended Bill and Barbara Kopp’s dream of their son, Billy, getting a college degree, and turned it into his dream of playing poker professionally.

Last week, the University of Kentucky student from Erlanger earned $896,730 for finishing 12th in the World Series of Poker. That came on the heels of his winning hundreds of thousands of dollars in other tournaments the last few years and forced his parents into making them believers that poker could become his career.

“We have come to the realization that he may make a living at it,” said Bill Kopp. “My wife and I, neither one went to college, and our goal was for (all our kids) to get a college degree. There were several evenings where we talked to him and said, ‘You really need to get this degree, so you have a good plan B.’ We have no carrots to dangle over his head to make him a believer in that right now.”

Bill Kopp said his son, who left for a week’s vacation Monday and is turning down interview requests until he returns, needs to finish about nine more classes to earn his degree in business, but that he’s put that on hold.

“When he started playing, he promised us he would get his diploma and still tells us he’ll get it, but it’s hard for us to tell him not to pursue this right now,” said Bill Kopp. “This was not a fluke. He’s been working at this like an athlete. He’s got a goal and he’s not where he wants to be yet, so he’ll keep striving and working hard until he does.

“My brother-in-law, who plays poker, was talking to my wife the other day about this and he said, ‘It’s hard to tell him to get that diploma so he can make $40,000 a year in a regular job when he’s doing so much better than that.’ ”

Bill Kopp said it helps that Billy, a 2004 graduate of Villa Madonna Academy, hasn’t taken his new-found wealth and started spending recklessly.

“Lucky for us he has a good head on his shoulders,” said Bill. “He just bought a car, but he bought a used car and he got a good deal. Maybe it helps that he has conservative parents.”

Bill Kopp said he isn’t much of a card fan and doesn’t much like gambling, but said his wife enjoys cards and credited card memory games she played with her children when they were younger for perhaps helping Billy.

He laughed when thinking back to a time just five years ago when Billy, still in high school, came to his parents with a proposition for funding him as an online player.

“He wanted to use our credit card and initially we said, ‘No way,’ ” said Bill. “Then we thought, well, OK, maybe we can control it and he put $20 on there. It’s the only time he ever had to do it.”

Billy won $100,000 at age 18 for just a $60 buy-in and has found success ever since.

That $20 investment might not have netted Bill and Barbara Kopp that college diploma yet, but it’s given their son Billy a pretty good financial start in life.