Strip Poker World Record

Strip poker was transformed from a cheeky game for lusty students into an official event when John Young beat 200 other players to become the first World Strip Poker Champion in August.

The event was originally conceived as a joke. Paddy Power Poker, looking to pull a memorable April Fools Day prank, released a press release on April 1 announcing that they would be attempting to set a new world record for the biggest strip poker tournament. The press release worked in that many readers believed the announcement to be true, but it also backfired, because within minutes of releasing the news, the Paddy Power phone lines were jammed with players wanting information on how to register!

At this point, Paddy Power had two main options. They could either put their hands up and admit that their strip poker prank had gone wrong, or they could review their position and decide to actually proceed with the event. Never ones to shy away from a challenge, they called the officials at Guinness World Records and were told than no record for the largest strip poker tournament actually existed. That's when the Irish betting company decided to turn their April Fools joke into something serious.

Strip poker has a long history, and most poker players have at least toyed with the idea of betting with clothes instead of chips. The idea is for all players to start with an equal amount of clothing and play to lose as little of it as possible. The last player to get naked wins. Whilst the rules for the Paddy Power event were rather more detailed (competitors were given a pack containing ten pages of rules and two appendices which totalled a further fifteen pages) the basic principle was exactly the same.

The Paddy Power World Strip Poker Championship were held on August 19 in London's Café Royal. A total of 195 competitors from twelve countries took part on the day – all of them playing to keep their clothes and win £10,000, a Golden Fig Leaf trophy and entry into the Paddy Power Irish Open tournament.

The event kicked off at 1pm, and it wasn't long before skin was being exposed by players. The tournament wasn't a walk in the park though, and the eventual winner – a 32 year old freelance writer by the name of John Young – had to play for eight hours to become the first ever Paddy Power World Strip Poker Champion.

For Paddy Power and everyone who participated, the event was a roaring success. A new world record was successfully set, PP got masses of publicity and the competitors had a great time.

Whether there will be another event in 2007 remains to be seen. What we can be fairly sure of is that PP will be a lot more thoughtful before launching their next April Fools Day prank on the poker world.