Watford man scoops $100,000 poker pay cheque (From Watford Observer)

Watford man scoops $100,000 poker pay cheque

11:51am Thursday 13th November 2008

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A hardware store manager has banked $100,000 after bluffing his way to second place in a nail-biting final of a national poker championship.

Craig Young took on five of the top ten poker players in the world, as well as cricketer Shane Warne and snooker legend Dennis Taylor, in last Friday's 888.com Poker Open Final, in Maidstone.

And after all the cards had been played Craig found himself in a second place, pocketing around £67,000.

Despite punching well above his weight, Craig, who grew up in Watford, says his bumper pay cheque was tinged with disappointment.

Craig eventually lost to Michael Keiner a retired plastic surgeon turned professional poker player. However, despite the gulf in experience the whole tournament came down to the last card in the last hand.

With one card remaining Craig was clutching a flush - a potential winning hand.

But the final card - a jack of diamonds - rescued the professional and gave him victory courtesy of a full house.

“I qualified, then managed to beat a few pros in the opening round, then I beat a few more in the semi final and beat a few more in the final”, Craig said very matter of factly.

“But I am a bit disappointed really because I came so close. But that's poker as they say.”

Craig has been playing poker for no more than three or four years, with the stakes at his games averaging £20.

Indeed he only qualified for the tournament via an on-line game, allowing him to play against professional card players from as far away as Brazil and Australia who had all paid almost £4,000 just to sit at the table.

“It was very stressful”, Craig, who now lives in Chesham and works in St Albans said.

“I'm obviously sitting there with four pros around me, thinking 'just do what you can and see what happens'.

“And then they all very generously started knocking each other off the table. And every time one of them went the prize money got bigger.”

He added: “I just sat there and thought 'this is going quite well'.”

Craig says he intends to spend the money on his daughters and bank the rest, but maintains thoughts of new cars and exotic holidays were far from his mind while he was a the table.

“The money was an after thought to be honest.

“I just went to compete with these professionals and found myself in the middle of it really.

“I have always suspected I can play the game to a reasonable standard but I proved to myself that I can play the best.”

Anyone who wants to watch Craig's nail-biting finale will be able to see the game on Sky Sports in January.

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