Walsall poker star scoops £450,000 jackpot
Walsall poker ace Kully Sidhu won over £450,000 on a recent trip to Las Vegas - taking his lifetime earnings to over £1.7 million through the game.
Mr Sidhu, who hit the headlines earlier this year when he won over £200,000, won the Bellagio Cup at the famous Bellagio casino this month for a whopping £457,430 - according to popular poker tracker website Hendon Mob.
His win took his career earnings to some £1,728,955 and catapulted him from 74th on England's all-time poker winnings list to 34th.
Aged 33, Mr Sidhu, from New Invention, worked for his father's clothing store in Bentley before developing a love of the game.
He studied at Sneyd Comprehensive School in Bloxwich but it was at De Montfort University where he found his love the game. Mr Sidhu has been playing professionally now for over six years.
In a final table that was stacked with some of the biggest names in the poker world, Mr Sidhu outlasted them all to claim first place prize money and the coveted trophy, according to Hendon Mob.
His competitors included fellow Brit Liv Boeree as well as a host of players who play for millions across the world, including Connor Drinan and David Peters.
When it was down to two, Mr Sidhu struck a deal with two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Nick Schulman in which they took home similar amounts of money and played on for the trophy.
Despite having been plying his trade professional for a number of years and having amassed over £1m in winnings, it has not always been plain sailing for Mr Sidhu.
He tried to forge his professional career while balancing it with work but decided to call it quits at age 20 when he felt things weren't going his way.
He didn't play cards for six months but soon got back in the swing of things, continuing his work at the clothes shop while preparing for a leap into the professional world.
Speaking earlier this year, Mr Sidhu said: "It was by no means an overnight thing, I had to work hard and be sure that I could commit to being professional before I made the decision. It was on and off for a long time."
Mr Sidhu's first big win came back in April 2010 when he scooped nearly £55,000 for winning the Manchester leg of the Grosvenor UK Poker tour.
