Student, 20, wins £35,000 at poker tournament

nottinghampost wrote:Student, 20, wins £35,000 at poker tournament


Rehman Kassam, from Beeston, with party poker girls Sophie Crawford and Martina Bosede.

MOST university students struggle to scrape together enough pennies for their next pint.
But affording more than just the basics to survive on isn't a worry for Rehman Kassam any more.


The Nottingham University law student is quids in after scooping £35,000 in a poker competition.
The 20-year-old swept past the opposition at the World Poker Tour warm-up tournament at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham – the biggest poker venue in Europe.

Despite facing opponents much older and more experienced than himself, Rehman wasn't intimidated in the slightest. He said: "It didn't bother me that I was competing against people who'd been playing for longer than me, as I just get in the zone when I'm playing.


"I couldn't quite believe it when I won though – it's certainly the most money I've ever had and it didn't sink in for a while." Rehman, of Turnpike Lane, Beeston, took the title ahead of 50-year-old former carpet fitter Craig Dawson from Bolton.


The third-year student, who wants to become a solicitor, only began playing poker on a casual basis three years ago.He said: "I started playing when I was in the sixth form – just round at some of my mates' houses.
"Towards the start of this year I started playing a bit more, especially when I realised Nottingham was the home of poker.


"I love the fact that it's a challenge and that it puts you in a high-pressured situation. I enjoy having to think on my feet and it brings out the best in me." Rehman won £8,000 in one of his first competitive tournaments in January, which gave him the confidence to take part in the World Tour warm-up – a £125 Texas Hold 'Em event.