Peoria resident wins $5,000 in televised poker tournament

Illinois- A $5,000 poker victory's not too shabby, especially when it comes at the hands of a man with only a few years' experience who decided to start playing on a whim.

Peoria resident David Brownworth, a real-estate agent for Coldwell Banker, was the Nov. 9 ClubWPT TV tournament champion, defeating almost 650 Internet gamers to win a trip to Los Angeles, where he beat five other amateur poker players from across the country on national television broadcast by Fox Sports Net.

The finalists were taken from a nightly Internet poker game held on clubwpt.com, a subscription poker Web site.

Brownworth said he had a little luck but also played his cards right and had patience.

"It was fun. I was able to read people well, and that's a lot of what poker is," Brownworth said. "I bluffed in the right spots and played it well."

Bluffing in the right spots and playing it well are apparently talents that come naturally to Brownworth - he's only been playing poker seriously for about three years.

He started when he and some friends formed a Thursday night poker club. The All-In Trilogy Poker Club, named after the Northwest Valley community, has grown from six to as many as 60 people on some nights, Brownworth said. The club provides poker lessons as well.

"It shows the popularity of the game," Brownworth said. "It's the easiest game to learn but hardest game to master. It keeps the brain going."

AZ Central

News Added: 17 November, 2008

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