A BASILDON- born poker phenomenon who started playing Texas Hold’Em online while studying economics at university ten years ago is now a multimillionaire.

Chris Moorman, 31, who grew up in Rayleigh and attended Westcliff High School for Boys, has won a staggering $14million and more than $5million playing at live tournaments.

Now the king of poker, who is sponsored by 888poker, is preparing for the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas next week - which attracts thousands of players and a winning prize of $8million.

It is an incredible achievement for Chris, who was so concerned about telling his parents about his interest that he pretended he was earning money stacking shelves.

He said: “When you start playing every day you get better and by the end of the summer, I had gone from having a couple of hundred dollars in my online account to having a bank roll of five thousand dollars.”

By the time Chris completed his studies, he had paid off his student loans and had a total of around £50,000 in the bank. He then admitted the truth to his parents and within six months had made more than £100,000.

Mr Moorman scooped more than $1million in the World Poke Tour Los Angeles Poker Classic in March 2014, and met his wife Katie at a poker tournament in Vegas.

Now he is looking forward to competing in the world series and hopes this is his time to shine after playing 11 times before, but never winning. It kicks off on Saturday and plays out until a winner is crowned.

He said: “The first time I went I’d won my seat online. It’s the dream of every poker player to take part.

“It’s quite gruelling. You can play over seven or eight days for 13 or 14 hours at a stretch but the time goes so fast because you’re having so much fun.

“Anybody can sit down and technically win by what we call running well - they get good cards and they play them well at that time.”

“That’s why the game is so popular because everybody genuinely has a chance. It’s like a Sunday league footballer playing in the World Cup final - but in poker, because there’s an element of luck, an amateur can end up beating the professionals.”

After Vegas, Chris is scheduled to play in the next 888Live event at Aspers Casino, in Westfield, Stratford, in October.

He has published a book - Moorman: The Story of the Most Successful Online Poker Player of All Time.