After a gruelling 4 hours at the table, Ben Beasley-Murray, freelance journalist for The Times, took home £2,500 in prize money and the bragging rights as the best poker player in print, from the pokerzone ‘Media 25 Hundred' last month.

Lee McCreery, of News of the World, and Simon Young, of The Sun, gave Ben a run for his money but were overcome by Ben's poker prowess, and ‘cunning strategy,' and finished in second and third places respectively.

‘Media 25 Hundred' was filmed at the pokerzone studios in London and is scheduled to air at 7:00pm GMT, July 1 on SKY CHANNEL 226.

Other journalists in the media poker tournament were FHM's Mike Peake, Lads Mag's Mark Tate, David Flusfeder, a freelance journalist for the Financial Times, Oliver Irish, editor of Stuff, Nils Pratley from The Guardian, and poker veteran and journalist Matt Born.

Jim Sibcy, Managing Director said, “The journalists all possessed sharp poker skills, and it was extremely exciting to watch! There could be some budding professional poker players amongst this lot! Their strategic play made for an impressive game and I am sure they will be very interested to watch the end result on pokerzone.”

The media poker tournament was such a hit with the print journalists that plans are in the pipeline for another one for the broadcast media. pokerzone is now on the search for broadcasters with a poker passion.

“We are planning a second ‘Media 25 Hundred' as we would like to give the radio and television media the chance to test there card skills,” said Sibcy. “We might then hold a ‘Best of the Best' tournament with the top print and broadcast media competing for a bigger cash prize!”

Officially launched on May 18, pokerzone offers an unrivalled selection of modern and exciting poker and casino lifestyle entertainment to more than 8 million digital TV homes and global broadband subscribers.

Poker has become a huge worldwide phenomenon (over £100m is staked at online card rooms worldwide each day) and its popularity has spread as far as the rich and famous in Hollywood with A-list stars such as Ben Affleck and Matt Damon being keen players.