AN ALLOA man will be jetting off to Las Vegas later this month in the hopes of being crowned the UK Pub Poker Champion.

Scott Johnstone, 30, will be up against some if the country's top players after qualifying for the prestigious VEGAS100 event.

Now in its 13th year, the competition is run by Redtooth Poker, and is the UK's largest live pub poker league.

Scott is now in with a chance of winning a slice of the tournament's £25,000 prize pool.

Included in the winner's prize is a £5,000 sponsorship deal for the year ahead, and one player taking part in the VEGAS100 will also receive the title of Player of the Year.

Speaking to the Advertiser, Scott said he was "over the moon" at the prospect of taking part.

He said: "I'm excited, I never thought anything like this would happen.

"I thought I'd go and maybe have a few wee local tournaments, but I never expected to go to Vegas."

Incredibly, Scott is still relatively new to the game, having only discovered a passion for its thrills and spills recently.

He said: "I've only been playing poker for just under two years.

"It was my wee brother asked me to go along to a poker tournament one night, and just from then I was hooked on it."

But despite being a relative novice, Scott's skills were on full display when he reached the final stage of qualifying for the Vegas tournament.

Although the odds against him were, by his own estimation, 1,000 to one, he said he kept winning hand after hand to make it through.

Scott now stands as strong a chance as any other poker player of winning the VEGAS100.

When asked if he had thought about what he might do with the prize money if he comes out on top, he said: "Oh aye, I'd take me and the missus on holiday."

The competition is set to start on May 23, and will run for a week.