Actor wins the Cardiff leg of major UK poker tour

There was a payday of note even by television actor standards this week for British actor Michael Greco, who won the Cardiff leg of the Grosvenor Poker Tour in the UK. One of Greco's career roles was as Beppe di Marco on the long-running EastEnders television soapie.

The Cardiff event was Greco's first major poker win as the actor showed skill and audacity on his way to the final table, beating a starting field of 314 players. Entering the final table, the actor was short-stacked but did not allow this to faze him, and he quickly built up a useful reserve with some shrewd moves, ending up as the chip leader among the final three survivors of the tough tournament.

"This means so much to me, and I'd like to thank Blue Square and Grosvenor for organising such a well-structured event," Greco said immediately after the tournament.

Greco started off playing poker in ring games at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London, but has since shifted focus to tournament play. In the past year he's had several good showings in tournaments leading up to his big win at Cardiff of GBP 97 680.

Greco faced IT specialist Hoss Parhizkar in the short but sharp heads up that ended the game. The hand that did Parhizkar in was his J-T versus Greco's K-9. Greco hit a king on the flop, and both of them got all their chips in after a nine came on the turn, giving Parhizkar a straight draw. Greco's "No queen, no seven" chant worked, though, when a jack came on the river to solidify his win.

Parhizkar's consolation second prize was GBP 51 980.