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A familiar name won the seventh leg of the UK Poker Tour in Bolton as former Republic of Ireland footballer Tony Cascarino took the £52,850 first prize.

The former Gillingham, Millwall, Aston Villa, Celtic, Chelsea and Marseille striker has been playing around the world for the past two years and this is his first major tournament victory.

The 46-year-old footballer turned media pundit, who took up poker six years ago, defeated Ali Mallu in the heads-up at the end of the four-day tournament.

He said: "I had a great sports career, but even this I think has overtaken some of things I have done in football. I just enjoyed it. I've had a strange year and this has made a big difference for me in the poker world."

The smallest field to date, 219, assembled in Greater Manchester and after three days it was whittled down to the nine man final table with Cascarino (264,500) just behind Mallu (336,000) and Roberto Romanello (270,500) on chip count.

UK heads up champion Kevin O'Leary (242,500) followed with Rob Sherwood (206,000), Dennis Clough (167,500), Sid Harris (109,000) and Greg Hunt (87,000) all ahead of the man with the greatest pedigree at the table, former World Poker Tour winner Surinder Sunar (68,000).

Hunt (£4,400) and Harris (£5,250) were the first to exit before Sunar became a big casualty in seventh place for £7,000.

Sunar called O'Leary's All-In bet and was met with five trips to send him packing but O'Leary could only place fifth for £11,400 with Dennis Clough (£8,750) departing in between.

When Sherwood exited in fourth for £14,900, Mallu was a runaway chip leader with 1.25 million compared to 333,000 for Cascarino and 298,000 for Romanello.

Mallu accounted for Romanello (£21,900) when he landed a decisive pair of threes on the flop but then saw Cascarino begin to make inroads into his massive chip advantage by doubling up in quick succession, when he called All-Ins with a pair of sevens and then pocket kings.

And the end came when Cascarino held Ace, eight of clubs against Mallu's nine and three of hearts. Three more clubs on the flush gave Cas the decisive flush.

Cascarino is just one of several ex-footballers now playing professional poker with former England international Teddy Sheringham and ex-Leeds striker Tomas Brolin also regulars on the UK and European tour.

Cascarino explained his passion for poker to The Guardian. "I think more and more sportsmen will become interested to be honest, because it's time-consuming and we have so much time on our hands when we finish," he said.

"I lost about 70, 80 grand in that first year but that was my learning curve, so for me that was the best 80 grand I ever spent. Now I know I can play, I know I can make a profit. Last year I made double that - I made 150 grand playing poker.

"My missus says she's never seen me so happy as after I won an invitational event in St. Kitts in the Caribbean. I won $100,000, and that was an enormous buzz, I got a big kick out of it. I think the biggest thing for me is that after that I was also respected by my peers as being a good poker player.

"I had a lack of confidence as a footballer, that was one of my biggest problems. I don't feel that in poker because you can get lucky. I know confidence is everything when you're playing poker too, but at times you can just be blasé. I've seen players who just want to get knocked out of competitions and play terribly, but get very lucky and have huge chips. In football there's no luck, you have to do it yourself."

The next leg of the UK tour takes place on the Kent coast in Thanet with the final table set for October 19 while before that Cascarino heads to the European Tour event in Barcelona.

Angus MacKenzie / Eurosport