Wednesday, 6th May, 2009

The WheelKings own Jeremy Doyle has won the inaugural Wenty Leagues WheelKings Poker Night. He outplayed a number of NSW's best poker players to take home the Champion's Trophy, a professional poker chip set and a very nice Samsung 32" high definition LCD television.

It was a terrificly enjoyable night with 50 players participating, many of them novices from the WheelKings and University of Western Sydney. Con Valassis and his team from the Australian Poker League were there to help teach the game and run a very professional tournament.

WheelKings coach Gerry Hewson got into it along with players Kylie Gauci, Craig Cannane, Jonathon Simon, Koen Jansens and of course Jeremy Doyle. Nick Taylor and John McPhail from the West Sydney Razorbacks also put in a welcomed appearance. All the guys had a good run and won several hands each but it was only JD and McPhail who got through to the prize-winning Final 8.

JD was the chip leader for much of the night and was pulling off some amazing hands. His close friend McPhail bowed out in 6th position and it was then up to JD to finish off some very experienced players. The cards kept falling for him but JD also proved to be a cagey bluffer and he won a couple of huge hands with next to nothing as he went on to win the tournament.

Although there weren't as many people there as anticipated, the night still raised nearly $1,000 for the WheelKings and much thanks goes to UWS Hospitality Management students Judy Yan, Jay Zheng, Sup Han, Tiffany Huang, Kevin Wang and Mandy Su for their help in putting on the event. Wenty Leagues also deserve a huge vote of thanks for providing their venue for free.

Prize donations were gratefully received from Con Valassis of APL ($500 poker table and five $100 chip sets) and photo-journalist Noel Rowsell (six $75 Tonizone gift packs). WheelKings chairman Koen Jansens sourced donations of an XBox 360 Pro including 5 games ($750), four Reckitt Benckiser gift packs valued at $60 each, and a number of Bigpond $50 game and movie download vouchers.

Overall, the night was great fun and the WheelKings will definitely be doing it again. A lot was learned about how much time is needed to set up and promote such an event so expect the next WheelKings Poker Night later this year to be even bigger and better!