Canadian Wins $3 Million World Poker Crown

12th May, 2008

Canadian plumber Jack Hinchey this morning won the $3 million guaranteed 888.com World Poker Crown in Peralada Castle, Spain defeating his fellow countryman Michael Lawson to take down the $1 million first prize.

Heads-up, Hinchey started with a more than 3:1 chip lead over Lawson, who won his seat for $20 on Pacific Poker. The 21-year-old internet pro clawed his way back to a 1.5:1 underdog in chips but a grimly determined Hinchey dug in. The final hand saw Hinchey limp on the button with Ks-Qc and the flop fell a favourable Kh-Jh-6h. Lawson pushed all-in with pair of 10s and Hinchey called. The turn was a jack and the river a third king and the Canadian grandfather was awarded the World Poker Crown.

Hinchey, who has been playing poker and hustling pool for over 30 years, started the final table as chip leader and while it was not all plain sailing en route to the title, his victory left him ecstatic.
"This is a lot better than being in a sewage pit," he grinned after his victory. "My strategy was to keep the pressure on everybody, I flubbed a few times in the middle but it worked out in the end. They call Michael an internet pro but I think he's proved to everybody here that he's a poker professional, so thank you. Victoria, my granddaughter is off to uni, she might not like the idea yet but this money is going towards that!"

Lawson won $397,800 and said after his defeat, "I have a few regrets. I'm pretty happy with second but once you get to heads-up that all changes and you're gunning for the win. But I'm sure that $400,000 will make up for that. For the most part I played a pretty tight-aggressive style. But heads-up I changed that and played pretty reckless, and that didn't work for me I should stick to ABC!"

The event was filmed for a two-hour TV broadcast on Sky Sports 2 on May 12 at 9:30PM BST and will be broadcast in Spain, Brazil, Holland, Italy, Poland and Germany in the following weeks. Commentary is by Jesse May and Padraig Parkinson.