Basseterre, St. Kitts – Nevis
October 07, 2007(CUOPM)
A 24-year-old restaurant supervisor is heading for St. Kitts, where the first poker game played on the ocean floor two years ago.
Hugo Asenjo will fly to St. Kitts after winning an Extreme Poker Tournament in Australia held 90m above the Pacific Ocean.
Last Thursday’s Extreme Poker tournament on Thursday saw six high-rollers perched on a steel mesh platform jutting from a cliff at Sydney Harbour.
The five losers of the knock-out game of TexasHold “˜Em departed in spectacular style, reported Australia’s Daily Telegraph – they exited the table by abseiling down to the rocks below.
No mean feat, considering the wind speed of about 65km an hour, according to reports.The winner, 24-year-old restaurant supervisor Hugo Asenjo, will fly to the Caribbean at the end of the year to take part in the Extreme Poker Final – which will be on the sea floor at St. Kitts in the Caribbean.
On his 40-minute, cliff-edge experience, Mr. Asenjo said: “As long as you don’t look down, it’s quite fine.”
But, he added: “It was really terrifying this morning when we first went out on the deck for a test run.
“The wind was so strong; we thought the game was going to be called off.”
He did express some nervousness about the underwater final in St. Kitts, saying: “I must admit I’m a bit concerned about that. I can’t say I’m much of a scuba diver.”
Mr. Asenjo, who was allowed to walk off the platform back to solid ground, won the final hand with two pairs, jacks and nines.
Some might consider the event – the fourth international tournament of Extreme Poker – relatively tame, given its history.
Past games have been in the Arctic Circle at a temperature of minus 30 deg C and under the sea in St. Kitts in the Caribbean, while losers in the game held in a plane over Las Vegas were made to skydive 9,000m to the desert below, reported ninemsn website.