There’s not much you can do with a penny these days.
They just seem to take up bloody space in your wallet and even shops don’t want them.
But novice poker player Andy Jankowski turned 1p into £135,000 by going on an amazing winning streak that saw him win a seat on the World Poker Tour.
He paid his shiny penny to enter an online tournament which eventually saw him qualify for a much richer contest at Lenton’s Dusk Til Dawn Casino in Nottingham, according to Metro.
Entry to the pro game was $1,100 (just over £750), but Andy qualified and made it to the table for next to nothing.
The 44-year-old put nearly 900 competitors to the sword, including a number of professional players.
It seemed like luck was on his side for the IT worker who had quit his job just a month before.
Andy only started playing for fun five years ago in pub games, but he has now won a tournament in Europe’s largest poker club against all odds.
His pals are pushing him to turn pro and head out to Las Vegas to take on the poker tables of the Sin City super casinos.
But Andy hasn’t planned that far ahead and is still figuring out how to spend his staggering winnings.
“I didn’t know what to do with the money when I first won, but now I think most of it will go on property, after I’ve bought a new car.”
After winning, he has secured a place in the UK’s next big World Poker Tour event in October – back at Dusk Till Dawn – which would normally cost more than £2,000 to enter.
David Allsop, Dusk Till Dawn’s poker league and academy manager, said: ‘It’s massive for the club that one of our home-grown players has won such a major tournament
‘It just goes to show that anyone can win if they give it a good go. There’s no bigger accolade for the game.’
