Graeme Newman is a man who proved that online poker is far from dead, and is offering greater and greater prizes for tournament play. Slinging cards under the player name "Grazza", Newman picked up a cool $230,000 when he finished first at the Ladbrokes European Online Championship of Poker. This was the second LEOCOP Main Event and it brought out not only the "everyman" of poker but plenty of pros, including Ladbrokes' own "Roy the Boy."
Newman, recently married, lives in London with his wife and works for himself, running a specialist insurance broker business. Graeme is just 30 years old, and this six figure payday comes at a great time in his life. Newman takes advantage of running his own company by making sure he has plenty of time to play poker online, which usually comes to about 40-50 hours a week. Add that up over the four years he has been playing poker, and Grazza's win doesn't seem so far fetched. One element of his story that does seem a little "Hollywood" but is completely true is the fact that he qualified for the LEOCOP Main Event minutes before it began. Having participated in other LEOCOP events, Grazza decided on a whim to play in a qualifier for the main event, rather than pay a buy in. When he won the qualifier it was a good sign, and then he finished off the competition in the wee hours of the morning. With this major online victory under his belt, Newman plans on working on his live tournament results to hopefully become a threat at the tables.
