Barnesy, Warne play on Ean's table | Northern Rivers News | Local News in Northern Rivers

Megan Masters | 10th February 2010

Ean Stewart is going all in with his business Pocket Aces Over Kings.

Nev Madsen

JIMMY Barnes is the envy of his mates, Jeff Fenech is happy as a pig in mud and Shane Warne is now spending his hard-earned dollars in Toowoomba — and it’s all thanks to local man Ean Stewart.

Mr Stewart has gone all in with his gaming table and poker business, Pocket Aces Over Kings.

He was a business broker until he suffered heart failure six years ago.

With 18 months of recuperation ahead of him, he decided to head out to the back shed.

He put together a nice looking poker table which a friend purchased from him, giving him the idea to throw the towel into the business brokering ring and try his hand at poker rings instead.

He even hand-delivered a table to Shane Warne’s birthday party, enjoyed dinner and was tipped eight cartons of beer for his effort.

Australian world poker champion Joe Hachem is also raving about the world-class tables produced here in Toowoomba.

Mr Stewart has just secured a contract to construct 200 limited-edition Joe Hachem tables and 1000 personalised chip sets that will be sold world-wide from his workshop and display room at the Wilsonton Industrial Estate.

The tables will have sterling silver detailing and will retail at $8000 or more while the chip sets will go for $2000 each.

He is now seeing the potential in Toowoomba for private fun casino nights. “I think there is another poker boom coming and I even had a mate who said he was at a school the other day and saw five kids playing Texas Hold’em for stones.”

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