Woman uses poker face to reach final (From Worcester News)

Woman uses poker face to reach final

8:15am Wednesday 21st November 2007

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A WORCESTER woman was the only person from the country to reach the final of an international poker tournament.

Tina Walker got through to the final of the Battle of the Mags tournament, which saw 12,000 people battle on-line for the opportunity to win more than £14,000.

"I was really nervous in the five weeks before the tournament," she said. "I kept thinking I cannot do this, but on the morning of the game I was really confident and raring to go."

Online betting agency paddypowerpoker.com ran the competition designed to find the UK poker magazine with the most talented reader. Eight magazines hosted an online tournament exclusive to their readers and the winner of each tournament then went on to play in the final.

Miss Walker, aged 37, of Dines Green, started playing poker four years ago. "I was at my boyfriend's house on Boxing Day and he said, shall we play poker?' I had never played before and I had this image of people sitting around in the pub," she said.

"I won first time and have been playing since.

"I usually play online at night when my three children have gone to bed.

"It is addictive, but I am strong willed so I am not just sat there day in day out gambling."

A spokesman for paddypowerpoker.com said: "Each of the online tournaments attracted large fields of high quality players.

"It is obvious from the standard of play we have seen that the players have gained a real expertise in the game and learnt from the excellent strategic advice they read in their favourite magazines."

Miss Walker played against seven other people from Europe and came fourth in the competition, which will be aired on Friday, December 14, on Sky channel 843.

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