Graeme Newman poker alias Grazza, went to bed in the wee hours of Monday morning, 2 October, $230,000 richer as the winner of the LEOCOP II Main Event (Ladbrokes European Online Championship of Poker) on Ladbrokespoker.com.

The LEOCOP, is an annual fixture on the Ladbrokespoker .com calendar. The event attracted 2252 players this year, a 12.6% increase on 2005 and exceeded the guaranteed prize pool of $1,180,000 by a massive $203,025.

Grazza won his place to play in the main event just 30 minutes prior to tournament beginning, by playing a 100 chip $265 second chance game on Labrokes.

He recalls "When I won the 'second chance' (a turbo to qualify for the main poker tournament), I was convinced that I'd used up my daily quota of good luck and I'd have none left for when I needed it most - but I'm glad to be proved wrong!"

Grazza saw off John Shipley who sat to his right on the final table and other tournament players such as Paul 'Actionjack' Jackson and Ladbrokes' sponsored player Roy 'The Boy' Brindley who placed 13th, to win the 13 hour Main Event.

The battle for first place was a hard fought one, with many chips changing hands before the final showdown and Grazza's 2 pairs kings over tens held up over second place finisher 'nixen'.

Graeme 30, who married just four months ago has lived in London for the past nine years. He runs a specialist insurance broker business that employs five. Graeme intends to use the winnings from the LEOCOP as a deposit on the couples first home in central London.

He joked: "I think my parents in-law think would rather I'd won this amount of money a few months ago as they wouldn't have had to fork out for the wedding!"

Graeme’s journey to victory has been a short one, having played on Ladbrokespoker.com online for four years and to date winning a prize fund in excess of $50k before this big win.

Although he has played in offline events including the recent London leg of the EPT (European Poker Tournament) and last year’s $10,000 Main Event at the WSOP, he has enjoyed the most success at Ladbrokespoker.com.