Bodog Beat

Alex Outhred, an instructor at the WSOP Academy and Season 5 WPT final table-ist, used his poker smarts to become the biggest winner so far on FOX TV's hit prime-time game show "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?" last night, winning a cool $500,000.

The Jeff Foxworthy-hosted show has contestants tackling subjects they were taught in grammar school, ranging from art to geography and math to social studies.

Outhred, who used poker strategies like pot odds analysis during his impressive run on the show, was just one question away from winning the show's top prize of $1 million, but he opted to forego the final question, which if he answered incorrectly he would have seen his $500,000 prize reduced to a paltry $25,000.

Outhred will make another national television appearance this May 16 when the Travel Channel airs the 2006 WPT Mandalay Bay Championship. Outhred finished fourth in the WPT event, winning $184,745. Outhred will also be one of the instructors, along with world champions Phil Hellmuth, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem and others, at the WSOP Academy's "Main Event Primer" in Las Vegas, July 3-5, 2007.

If you're looking to play in the WSOP Main Event yourself, there's still time to qualify through Bodog's online WSOP qualifiers.