Matt Perrins Wins Italian Poker Tourney

Euro 200 000 win for Manchester's Matt Perrins

Surviving a field of 439 players - many of them pro players - this week was Manchester, UK poker pro Matt Perrins (21), who won himself Euro 200 000 in taking down the Venice stop on the PokerStars.it Italian Poker Tour.

Perrins played a skilled game, emerging as chip leader on the first day of action and going on to conquer a 14 hour final table in which six of the players were Italians. That culminated in a heads up against Swedish player Johannes Soderstrom that electrified the railbirds at the Casino Ca'Vendramin in Venice.

The entry field generated a total prize pool of Euro 851 660, prompting the organisers to label this second stop on the Pokerstars Italian Tour the best yet.

Perrins told reporters he would use his prize money - his biggest purse by far in his short pro career - to buy a house back in the UK. His previous best was a GBP 9 210 win in the GUKPT in Brighton earlier this year.

Next stop for the tour is San Remo, where the action starts on August 28th, with qualifying satellites running online at Pokerstars.