Adelaide Teen Wins $96,000 & Title in His First Live Poker Tournament

Teenage Daniel Booth, who has played poker only five months, won Australia's inaugural Adelaide Holdem Championship Saturday, then returned to a double shift at his part-time supermarket job yesterday.

The 19-year university student old bested 120 other players to win AUD $96,000 (USD $85,600, EUR 58,500, GBP 41,800) and the title to the Championship Series on Saturday.

The event, which carried a total prize pool of more than $340,000, was held at SkyCity casino and featured Australian poker star Joe Hachem as well as many players from around Australia and overseas.

Most players paid a $3,000 entry fee while others, like Booth, won a seat at the table through a series of regional poker tournaments.

"I never dreamed I would win this tournament especially since I was up against so many of the world's best," he said.

"I've only recently started playing poker and taking it seriously since the poker league started in Adelaide pubs and hotels in June of this year."

National Poker League organiser Brock Gledhill said it wasn't just luck that Booth won the event.

"He just dominated. There were players there with phenomenal experience," Gledhill said.

Hachem, who skyrocketed to fame when he won the World Series of Poker in 2005 and a prize of more than $7 million, was knocked out of the tournament on Saturday night but stayed around to present the cash prize to the winner.

"It's fantastic that such a young man who is playing his first live poker tournament for cash triumphs," he said.

But life returned to normal yesterday for Booth, as he returned to work at a Munno Para supermarket, in Adelaide's north, for a double-time shift.

Second prize in the Adelaide championship, worth AUD $58,000, went to another local, 23-year-old Adam Cusenza, while Chris Tau from New Zealand won AUD $40,000 for finishing third.

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