Sándor Demján: From Real-Estate Mogul to Poker Fish

Hungary -- Apart from protesting at the Anti-Opera Ball, another way to get one over on the Hungarian overclass, especially those with more money than brains, is to take them on at poker.

And based on the accounts of his mega-high stakes play posted on certain poker blogs, real-estate tycoon Sándor Demján (contemplating folding, right) is exactly one of those people. Let's just say, it's easy to see where his stack went - and why he is now only former richest Hungarian.

First up, he and 281 poker fiends stumped up €8,000 to play in the €2 million Pokerstars European Poker Tour Event in in Baden, Austria, but lasted less than an hour and one post on Pokerhirek.com's flop-by-flop coverage, losing his stack with Q7 against QJ on an AQ3 flop. You don't need to have watched much late night poker on TV to know that he'll have been kicking himself very hard under the table.

His penchant for queens also took him down in Melbourne at the Aussie Millions, an elite 25-man tourney eventually won by Howard "Poker Professor" Lederer. According to Onlinepokerhu.com, he limply lost most of his 100,000 Australian Dollars-worth of chips after calling a bet with just J3 with JT4K on the table and then bowed out a few rounds later with Q9 unsuited before the flop against two professional players. Ouch.

News Added: 01 February, 2008

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