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 THE popularity of Channel 4's Late Night Poker programme, which is produced in Wales, and the accessibility of online gaming sights has made poker one of the fastest-growing "sports" around.
And one of the major beneficiaries of that popularity has been Wales snooker star Matthew Stevens, from Carmarthen.
The Welsh hotshot turned hustler, hit the £260,000 jackpot in Britain's richest poker tournament - the 888.com Pacific Poker Open - in 2004, when he beat tennis star Yevgeny Kafelnikov and darts champion Phil Taylor in the televised final - he also trumped a host of poker pros on the way to his windfall.
Since his Pacific Poker win Stevens has become a regular around the celebrity poker tables.
"Poker is where the money is," he says. "It's great because you haven't got to gamble much to get a lot back.
"I play every Wednesday night at the Grosvenor Hotel in Swansea. It costs £20 for a game and you can win £2,000 a night."
Stevens added, "The World Series has 7,000 players but there's US$10m for the winner. Even the small poker tournaments are for a healthy wedge. I've been invited to a poker tournament for snooker players and for a few hours work I could earn £6,000 tax free.
"Then I'd go into a celebrity final where £26,000 is at stake - that's more than winning a snooker ranking tournament these days. Snooker's a mug's game in comparison to poker because tournaments last a week where a game of cards lasts just a few hours."
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