By XAVIER SMERDON
WHEN Hoppers Crossing father Denny Lewis lost his job eight months ago he was not sure how he would support his partner and their two-year-old daughter.
But Mr Lewis’ fortunes changed earlier this month when he won $130,000 in a poker tournament.
The former traffic management worker was doing everything he could to avoid going on the dole and decided to try and test his poker skills against the professionals at Australia’s biggest poker tournament, the Aussie Millions Main Event at Crown Casino.
After failing to win a place in the tournament, Mr Lewis approached someone with a ticket and offered to buy it for $7000, pus 20 per cent of whatever he could win.
Little did he know that in just four days he would finish ninth out of 668 players and walk away with the mammoth sum of money.
After paying the original ticket owner $26,000, Mr Lewis was left with $104,000 to spend on his family.
“It was a bit surreal,” Mr Lewis said.
“I knew if I was the next person out I was going to make $130,000 but I also knew that if I could beat one more person I would win $170,000.”
Mr Lewis said he honed his skills playing in the 888 Poker League at the Tigers Clubhouse in Hoppers Crossing.
Playing against some of his poker idols and some of the best card sharks in the world did not intimidate the man who is not ashamed to say he came from “the wrong side of the tracks”.
“I knew I was in with a chance as long as I had a seat at the table,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter who they are, you just have to take everyone as just another player with chips in front of them.”
Mr Lewis said he would not be spending any of the money to continue playing poker, but he would instead take his daughter Taya to a toy store and “let her run wild”.
The rest of the money will go into the bank and he said he hoped to put it towards a house for his family.
