McQueston Part of Six Member European Championship Team

Scott McQueston, a 29-year-old from Eastern Road, gave up his 55,000 UK Pounds a year job five years ago after a series of wins playing in Edinburgh casinos. He has since become one of the top players in the UK and was part of six-strong team that recently won the European championship.

Mr. McQueston says he is confident he will win the World Series of Poker - the most prestigious tournament in the world, which begins next week. He claims to have won 1 million UK Pounds in two years, which would make him one of the most successful players ever, after he dropped out of his law and accountancy course at Edinburgh University to play the game on a full-time basis.

Mr. McQueston's first game, at Stanley Casino in York Place, got him hooked. He was at a casino with a friend and they needed an extra player. He has never looked back and says he now earns 150,000 UK Pounds in a typical year from the game. He fancies his chances against the world's 8000 top players who will gather at the event, but claimed not to be nervous - even if he reached the final.

Mr. McQueston won a seat at the Las Vegas event - which normally costs $10,000 to enter - by winning a competition on the PokerStars.com website. McQueston added: "I started playing poker simply as a hobby and have just taken it on from there. It's really not about the money. It's just great to be able to do something that I really enjoy doing. Poker is absolutely not about gambling - it's a game of many skills. You need to be disciplined, mathematical and be good at reading people, I love it."

Challenge TV will broadcast live updates from the tournament each day between July 28 and August 10, at 11pm.

Wednesday, 09. 2006
Matthew Dorst

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