TEXAS HOLDEM ONLINE POKER

Liam Greig received $105,000 after winning the Degree Poker Championship playoffs at the Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort in Niagara Falls, Ont.

Taped in June, it was broadcast Saturday night on TSN.

"The semi-final had me just totally wrapped up in nerves," Greig confessed from his home in Vancouver, where he works as an online poker software designer and plays jazz guitar.

"(But) I get nervous whether or not I have a good hand or I'm bluffing ... so I don't think that people can use it against me."

Greig hid behind a tweed hat and oversized sunglasses throughout the tournament to battle intimidation from other competitors and the cameras.

"My emotions were just running so high that I think, watching the tournament, I probably look pretty drained," recalled Greig of the moment he won. "I could not even crack a smile."

The 25-year-old learned to play draw poker from family members in Northern Bay Sands, N.L., where he spent summers as a young boy.

"Then I ... taught it to all my buddies around the community where I lived, and started winning their allowances," he said with a laugh.

Greig feels like he was "born with the (card) hand rankings already ingrained," but he didn't pursue his natural ability until about a year ago when he started designing gaming software for an online poker company.

"The people that I work with are all really fantastic players," he said.

"So I had to learn quick or else I was going to lose my paycheques every time I went out and played."

Greig played poker online and in few smaller tournaments prior to entering the Degree Poker Championship, but hadn't had any big payoffs.

"The most I'd won before the $105,000 was $580," he said. "And at the time that I won that, that was a big win."

Greig went up against 2,000 entrants to win Canada's first national Texas Holdem poker championship, set up by TSN amid a surge in the game's popularity.

As part of his win, Greig also received entry to the 2005 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. But he didn't make it to the second day of the tournament.

"My luck ran out," he says. "And there is that element of luck. You need to play well but you also need to have some cards on your side."