Harry Potter of poker and his wizard £2.5m jackpot

A SCOTS maths graduate dubbed the Harry Potter of poker has amassed a £2.5million fortune playing the game online in just four years.

David Vamplew is known as the Harry Potter of poker David Vamplew is known as the 'Harry Potter of poker' [DAVID JOHNSTONE]

David Vamplew, who is said to look like the bespectacled boy wizard made famous by JK Rowling’s books, has scooped £500,000 this year alone, much of it without leaving the comfort of his home.

But despite sometimes playing non-stop up to 14 hours a day, through the night until 7am, he has yet to spend much of his sizeable income.

The 26-year-old admitted his biggest spend has been his Edinburgh flat, where he has a dedicated room that he uses to play online.

This year he has already earned £469,000, following two second-place finishes in the World Series of Poker in in the Rio in Las Vegas.

While he regularly flies to poker events around the world, David usually plays out of a room he has turned into his poker “office” at home.

The former student, from Aberdour, Fife, became Scotland’s highest earning poker player when he won the £90,000 top prize at the Pokerstars European Poker Tour in London in 2010.

David said: “A decent session is probably eight to 10 hours, once you’ve entered a tournament, you have to play until it finishes.

“The longest I’ve played is 14 hours, especially if you’re winning, you just have to keep playing and playing. It can be 7am before the end of it but staying awake and concentrating isn’t too much of an issue because at that point you’re playing for really big money.”

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He learned to play poker when he enrolled at Edinburgh University in 2005, playing with friends, before joining the university’s poker society, and then discovering the online version of the game.

But he soon gave up his supermarket job when he found he was making far more money playing the high-stakes game online. 

David has the support of his friends and the backing of proud father Peter, who works for Shell ,and mother Jane, a support worker.

And while his maths degree helps with understanding odds and thinking through problems, it’s the human element of the game – different betting patterns, body language, figuring out what other players are doing – that he enjoys most.

Although he is top of the Scotland all-time money list, David admits poker is “a little insecure as a job”.

He said: “I don’t really have to worry about money too much although the nature of my job being poker means I have to be a bit more careful about planning for the future because there’s no guaranteed income.

“I’ve not splashed out on anything flashy like a ridiculous car. Obviously I’m doing all right, but I have to be sensible about it.”

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