Teenager Daniel Booth Wins $96,000 Adelaide Holdem Championship Poker Tournament

A teenage college student from Australia won the Adelaide Holdem Championship poker tournament. Amazingly, after cashing in a $96,000 first place win, the youth went back to work at his job stocking shelves at the local grocery store.

Having only played poker for five months, Daniel Booth is off to an incredible start, particularly for being a 19-year-old amateur poker player. Booth had played his way into a $3,000 seat in the Adelaide Holdem Championship that was held at Skycity Casino. The tournament featured such poker greats as Australia's own Joe Hachem.

The Adelaide Holdem Championship was the largest poker tournament in the history of Southern and Australia, and is expected to continue to grow each year. This year's inaugural tournament featured a total prize pool of $340,000 that was up for grabs. The tournament brought in a number of overseas players, creating a healthy mix of local and international players in the tournament.

While most of the 120 entrants paid $3,000 to buy into the poker tournament, Booth was one of only four players who actually won a seat into the tournament. Booth earned his seat by winning a series of qualifying tournaments that were hosted by the National Poker League and played at various hotels in the area. Having earned a free seat and then playing his way to the top spot made the victory an even more sensational story.

"I never dreamed I would win this tournament especially since I was up against so many of the worlds best," Booth stated in a post-tournament press release. "I've only recently started playing poker and taking it seriously since NPL poker started in Adelaide pubs and hotels in June of this year."