POKER players from across the globe will descend on a Sheffield casino to battle it out for one of the biggest prizes in the game.

Up to 60 players will be at Napoleons Owlerton Casino next month trying to gain automatic entry into the game's World Championships in Las Vegas.
The casino, beside Owlerton Stadium, has already beat off regional competition to land one of the most hotly contested events at the forthcoming World Firefighters Games 2004 – the World Firefighters Poker Tournament.

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The rise of poker has been driven by high-profile televised tournaments and is now shown on five different channels. It is also widely available on the internet.
Pit boss Craig Wicks – who has worked for Napoleons Casinos for 10 years - had the idea for the venue's first poker tournament and is working hard to prepare for the World Firefighters Poker Tournament.
"Landing this event has been a massive boost for Napoleons Casino Owlerton," he said.
"We've spent over two years developing the venue as a world class venue for poker and it's great to see our hard work paying off. We are committed to demistifying poker and opening it up to a wider audience and showing it has a fun as well as a serious competition side – next month's event won't be played for money, firefighters will be competing for medals and the top prize of an expenses-paid trip to compete in the World Championships in Las Vegas courtesy of poker.com."
Napoleon's is no stranger to being in the spotlight – it now holds four festivals a year and two tournaments a week, a total of 108 events a year. Prize money for the last night of its recent three-day festivals was £98,600.
World Firefighters Games 2004 co-ordinator Simon Athey said: "Napoleons Owlerton Casino has a brilliant reputation for staging high-profile and professionally managed poker tournaments."
High-rolling poker champions from the television screens are regulars at the venue. They include Dave 'Devil Fish' Ulliot who won the World Poker Open two years ago and walked away with $589, 175, Peter 'The Bandit' Evans, Korosh, Padraig Parkinson and Kevin O'Connel.
The five-hour World Firefighters Poker Tournament takes place on September 3 from 2pm to 7pm.

Source: Sheffield Today