Walsall poker ace Kully scoops £193,000 in top contest
He swapped selling clothes for playing cards – and now a Black Country poker ace is reaping the rewards after scooping almost £200,000 in a European tournament.
Kully Sidhu worked for his father's clothing store in Bentley before developing a love of the game.
Now aged 33, Mr Sidhu, from New Invention in Walsall, won €250,000, the equivalent of winning £193,442 by finishing third at the PokerStars prestigious Dublin European Poker Tournament'
The card champion paid £5,000 to enter the six-day event. The big win comes just a year after Kully, who has been playing professionally for six years, won £495,000 at a tournament in Barcelona.
That win combined with his latest accounts for the majority of his £918,000 amassed from live tournament winnings.
Kully, who ranks 74th on England's all-time poker winnings list, said: "It was great to get another big win under my belt.
"The tournament was a high-pressure situation, as they all are at this level.
"When you are playing the best of the best, it is part of the territory."
Kully, who studied at Sneyd Comprehensive School in Bloxwich, worked with his father at Bentley clothing store Sidhu Fashions after leaving De Montfort University in Leicester, where he had developed a love for the game.
He tried to forge his professional career while balancing it with work but decided to call it quits at the age of 20 when he felt things weren't going his way.
He didn't play cards for six months but soon got back in the swing of things, continuing his work at the clothes shop while preparing for a leap into the professional world.
He said: "It was by no means an overnight thing, I had to work hard and be sure that I could commit to being professional before I made the decision.
"It was on and off for a long time. When I stopped playing, it didn't feel right at the time but it helped me become the player I am now.
"I slowly started getting back into it, playing with friends at first and just learning how to play the game differently.
"Obviously now I can have no regrets."
Kully's talent with a deck of cards has taken him all over the world, competing in Italy, Switzerland, Malta, Spain and the USA among others. Despite his huge winnings, he lives a modest lifestyle and is still a bachelor.
