702's Aki gets the upper hand at Full House Events poker challenge

Full House Events has been fanning a five card fever that is spreading across corporate South Africa. Its poker-themed evenings, where no cash is needed, are proving to be the perfect backdrop for networking and corporate entertainment - and most recently, some good-natured media rivalry.

Usually accustomed to gathering the news, 35 journalists from print, radio and TV took instead to gathering chips, aiming to play themselves into a place at the final poker table. Thanks to Full House Events' poker experts, who were on hand to demystify the game, even the novices amongst the guests had a fighting chance of victory, with a number making it into the final.

It was an experienced player however, who took the top honours. Talk Radio 702's Aki Anastasiou showed he had a lot more than just the gift of the gab, winning with Ace King (a hand fondly known as an Anna Kournikova after the attractive Russian tennis professional - because it looks great but rarely wins anything). He beat Adam Wilkinson representing Financial Mail. Matthew Poultney from Bluff, SA's first dedicated poker magazine, was third followed by Afropolitan's Damian Murphy.

The ladies gave the guys a run for their money, taking two of the nine seats at the final table. Nicola Giuricich from the All Africa Poker marketing team and Tanja Carruthers from Bluff now join the long list of women to have competed at the final tables at Full House Events' poker-themed evenings, testimony to the growing popularity of the game amongst the ladies.

In line with Full House Events' Gambling Board approval there was no actual cash on the tables, and no monetary prizes. But poker paraphernalia and bottles of bubbly were up for grabs throughout the evening including bounties on the heads of FinWeek's Frik Els, Financial Mail's Rob Rose and Bluff's Andrew Carruthers.

“The response from the media for this event was overwhelming,” said Waites. “We will definitely be back next year with the 2009 Really Big Media Poker Challenge and we hope to see Aki attempt to defend his title against twice as many players.”

Following the success of the Joburg event Full House Events plans to take the Media Challenge to Cape Town next year.