A CARD-PLAYING ace from Kidderminster has won a seat in a £500,000 televised poker tournament just four months after walking into a casino for the first time.

Marcus Bebb-Jones, of Merton Close, kept his cool to land a £6,000 cash prize and a coveted opportunity to take on the "Gods of Poker" in William Hill's Grand Prix II competition later this month.

The 43-year-old found himself the last man standing out of 119 players at the final qualifying event at Birmingham's Broadway Casino last month.

Mr Bebb-Jones, an IT consultant, has been pitting his wits in online poker games for 18 months but only ventured into a casino in May.

The father-of-one said he was looking forward to the challenge of facing some of the world's best poker players - who have won millions of pounds between them - and the possibility of walking away with the top prize of £175,000.

He explained: "I would not enter a competition if I did not think I would have a chance of winning. It cost me £100 to enter. I had won a tournament in Walsall the previous night so I used some of my winnings from that.

"I did not realise until the end but, when it came down to the final 20 players, I had the lowest number of chips. It did not really hit me that I had a chance of winning until I was one of the final five or six left at the table.

"I am certainly not going to be overawed but there might be occasions when my inexperience could count against me."

The former Wolverley High School pupil got the bug for Texas Hold Em poker after watching the Hollywood film, Rounders, starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton.

His winning performance last month is being shown on the Poker 425 programme every day at 11pm on Sky channel 854, starting last night and running until Wednesday.

The "Gods of Poker" tournament begins on October 16 in Cardiff and viewers can see how he fares on Sky Sports early next year.

Jennie Prest, William Hill spokeswoman, said Mr Bebb-Jones had done "brilliantly" to book a place at the prestigious event as one of only 12 "mere mortals" able to face up to 44 of the world's elite.

She added: "It was a terrific achievement. We had other land-based qualifying tournaments and that one was the toughest in terms of numbers in the field and quality of players.

"He certainly did not have an easy route through. It will be interesting to see what happens when he faces the top professionals because he is obviously on a roll with his game at the moment."