I always feel a twinge of jealousy when I find out that a poker player younger than me has won a major tournament. The most recent in the trend of young poker winners is Sam Trickett, a twenty-four year old poker pro from the UK, who just took home $200,000 for winning the PartyPoker.com World Poker Open IV in London.

Trickett used to be a professional soccer player. However, after he suffered a knee injury in 2005 his gaming selection changed from soccer to poker and he has been claiming fame as a poker pro ever since, though he hasn’t had many huge wins under his belt. Trickett won the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Luton Main Event back in 2008, taking home a $210,000 prize, and he has taken home a prize that is almost as large with his World Poker Open win.

Trickett came out on top after fierce competition with a variety of well-known poker pros, including John Duthie, Andrew Robl and Juha Helppi. He beat Canadian poker pro Yevgeniy Timoshenko in a heads up game at the end of the tournament. Trickett commented on his win saying, “To finally win a big tournament is brilliant. It is great to hear people saying congratulations rather than commiserations.”

The final table payouts for the World Poker Open London were as follows:

1 – Sam Trickett – $200,000

2 – Yevgeniy Timoshenko – $110,00

3 – Toby Lewis – $75,000

4 – Juha Helppi – $35,000

5 – John Duthie – $25,000

6 – Andrew Robl – $20,000

7 – Dale Hoy – $15,000