Strip Poker

It started as an April Fool’s gag from those jokers at PaddyPowerPoker.com, but ended up as a fully fledged £10,000 live freeroll at one of the classiest joints in London, oh and there were naked people everywhere.

Last Saturday evening 19 August, John Young of Slough, Berkshire, was declared the world’s first strip poker champion in a world record breaking tournament in London.

John saw off 194 other hopefuls at the Paddy Power World Strip Poker Championships in London’s Café Royal to walk away with £10,000, a specially commissioned Golden Fig Leaf trophy and entry to the Paddy Power Irish Open where up to €2 million will be up for grabs. In addition the sponsor Paddy Power promised to donate a further £10,000 to the charity of the winners choice, Cancer Research, after John sportingly revealed all to the crowd…

The tournament kicked off at 1pm as 195 hopefuls from over 12 countries set out to keep their clothes on and carve themselves a place in history as part of a new official Guinness world record for the biggest Strip Poker tournament ever.

John, who emerged as the winner after eight hours at the poker table, said: “It was quite hard to bluff in the buff but luckily I kept my pocket aces hidden away! This was easily the most fun I’ve had at a poker table.”

One of the last standing women was Laura Barnett from Stirling, Scotland, who went out in a blaze of towel waving glory after a valiant effort at the table.

The event had originally been an April Fools story by Paddy Power earlier this year but after receiving requests from all over the world to take part the bookie decided to run the tournament for real.

Each player was given five items of clothing which they used to buy chips – as they lost their chips they cashed in their clothes for more. Some even opted to strip from the bottom up and sat playing naked except for a cap!

Paddy Power himself said: “Sometimes I just love coming into work! The event was an amazing success considering it grew originally from an April Fools story. I’ve never seen so many people so eager to lose the shirt off their backs. Hopefully next year we’ll break our own record.”