The Top Welsh Poker Players

You might be able to name quite a few famous people from Wales: Michael Sheen, Rhys Ifans and Tom Jones to name a few. Wales is also famous for its rugby, with head coach John Kear praising the performance of the team this year. There have also been a handful of fantastic and world-renowned Welsh poker players, too. Between them, they have earned over £10 million, and the top players have won international tournaments that cemented their names among the greats. Here we look at the top Welsh poker players.

Roberto Romanello

Roberto Romanello is the all-time, highest-earning poker player from Wales. He started his career back in 2006, and since then, amassed nearly $4 million in winnings. Romanello’s biggest-ever win came in 2010 when he took the first prize of over £500,000 in the European Poker Tour in Prague.

Far from a one-hit wonder, Romanello still takes down tournaments to this day. In 2016, he came in third in the World Series of Poker (WSOP), the biggest live poker event in the world, for $150,000. And last year (2018), Romanello scooped another impressive win. He came in first in the high-roller Caribbean Poker Party tournament, winning $450,000, one of his largest cash prizes ever.

If there’s any Welsh poker player to watch out for in coming years, it’s Romanello. His best ranking so far is 231^st in the world, and with the Swansea player still on the circuit, who knows what will happen next.

If you want poker advice from Wales’ top pro, Romanello likes to ‘let everything fall into place’. Though easy to say, you would still need a lot of skill to make it to his level!

Dave Colclough

The second-highest earning poker player from Wales is Dave Colclough, who was at the height of his career ranked 86^th in the world. The Carmarthen-born player grew up playing poker and got his first big break at a casino back in 1985.

Years later, in 2000, Colclough won the WSOP, and the prize money allowed him to quit his job as a computer programmer and pursue his dream of turning professional. He succeeded in becoming a high earner, with over $2.5 million in winnings, and in 2013, was named the European Poker Player of the Year.

Colclough was also one of the best Omaha players in the world. Omaha is a variation of poker in which players get four hole cards and must use two of them along with three from the five board cards to make their hand. It is like the popular Texas Hold ‘em but with different rules for forming the hand.

Unfortunately, Dave Colclough passed away in October 2016. But we will remember him as one of Wales’ greatest-ever poker players.

Welsh Greats

Caption: Matthew Stevens is a professional snooker player who also ranks highly as one of Wales’ greatest poker players.

There have been many other great Welsh poker players who have won huge tournaments and made millions. Here we mention a few. Interestingly, many of these poker pros were also experts in other areas.

• The third-highest earning poker player hailing from Wales is Mansour Matloubi. He is Iranian-British but moved to Cardiff in 1972. Matloubi won the 1990 WSOP Main Event, taking home over $800,000 and has a total of 14 cash wins in the tournament. His total winnings exceed $2 million.

• Iwan Jones is a Welsh TV producer turned poker player who won first prize in the inaugural World Poker Exchange London Open in 2015 for a handsome $750,000. He has total live tournament earnings of over $1.5 million and major cash wins running up to 2017. As well as hitting up the U.K. scene, Jones has also frequented the tables in Vegas, winning several major cash prizes.

• Cardiff-born John Tabatabai is a chess whizz who represented Wales in several international competitions. He went on to become runner-up in the first-ever World Series of Poker Europe, winning around £5.7 million ($912,000 USD). That kick-started his five-year-long poker career, and he now has over $1.3 million in cash wins.

• Matthew Stevens is a professional snooker player from Carmarthen. He has won many major snooker events, including the Masters in 2000 and the U.K. Championship in 2003 as well as becoming runner-up in the 2000 and 2005 World Snooker Championships. He also makes it into the ranks as one of Wales’ greatest poker players, once beating darts champion Phil Taylor in a major U.K. Open, bagging himself half a million pounds.

Where to Play Poker in Wales

Wales doesn’t have a huge international live poker tournament scene, though you can find top events in Swansea and Cardiff. However, online poker is legal in the U.K., including Wales, giving you access to legitimate poker sites and entry into a variety of games. Even further, tournaments are available at a range of different buy-in levels, including free poker tournaments with prize money or entry to bigger games for the winners.

If you do want to check out the live casinos, Grosvenor is always a good option, and this is where you will find the top poker tours when they come to Wales. There is a Grosvenor Casino in both Swansea and Cardiff. And you can also find smaller casinos around the country, including in Wrexham in the north.

The top Welsh poker players may have gone on to win international events and become elite ranked players, but they also started for the mere enjoyment or as a side project from their occupations. Now, many of the top Welsh pros have made handsome fortunes and competed at the highest level, giving hope to future Welsh poker players.