The sweat was pouring from his forehead as he clutched a pair of sevens. There was $13,000 on the table, and Neil Collins could smell the pot of money coming his way in the biggest poker game of his life. But the man known as RhinoNeil was not in a smoke filled casino. He did not have buxom saloon girls leaning over his shoulder, dropping their room keys into his pocket. Instead, the 41-year-old recruitment consultant was in his kitchen in Shirley with his fourmonthold daughter in the next door room. Neil won the hand and went on to beat 40,000 players across the world in the giant on-line poker competition. Amazingly, it was the first tournament he had entered after taking the game up just three months ago. But he beat off challenges from poker professionals and experienced players in the internet tournament, run by one of Britain's top bookies. Neil - who has been married to Claire, aged 29, for a year - was even bought a guide to poker by a friend, but didn't bother to read it. "I had only ever played with my family before and that was not the proper version of the game," said the former Lighthall School pupil. "I was a big fan of late night poker on TV so after my daughter was born I just started playing on the internet. "This was my first competition and I was playing for about six hours in the heat and won through to the final. At one stage in the final I had lost $1,000 from my pot, but I went all in on a pair of sevens and won through." Neil has now clinched a place in the Poker Million poker tournament on Sky TV, with a possible jackpot of more than $300,000. He will be up against top professional players from across the globe, but this time he will be playing face-to-face rather than behind a screen. "I am going to have to get some practice because the pros will know how to read players like me, but internet players have done well at these tournaments so I am hopeful," added Neil who chose the nickname RhinoNeil, because he thought poker players should be thick-skinned. Neil is now hoping that he can go as a full-time pro. | 
