If you’re trying to find your own look at the poker table you can do worse than start with a Fedora. Baseball caps, visors, shades, iPods, woollen hats, hey, that’s all been done. What you need is a felt hat the type Don Corleone used to wear, typical of artists perhaps or poets living the bohemian lifestyle.

Enter PokerStars qualifier Vincent Secher.

It’s not just the hat which makes Vincent stand out in the crowd. It’s not even his more than healthy stack of chips. It’s the little matter of his accommodation.

The Monte Carlo Bay Hotel is one of the most beautiful in the world for sure, and any hotel in Monte Carlo could boast an equally impressive standard of hospitality. For Vincent though, he couldn’t get his hands on any of that, qualifying at the last possible moment some ten days ago on Steps.

Not to be put off, not letting the matter of where he would rest his head at the end of the day concern him, Vincent and his travel buddies Damien and Nicolas came up with an alternate master plan – a tent.

Two tents actually, I mean it’s not like they’re roughing it. €18 a night gets them a place to pitch up and all the fresh air they can handle from the comparative luxury of a campsite in Nice.

The graphic design student from Arles in the south of France has been playing poker for over four years now, but this is the biggest event he’s played in by far.

“This is my first time qualifying” said Vincent, showing no sign of tardiness despite not being part of the luxury cocooned everyone else here. “My biggest win to date was in the Sunday million – 70th for about $1,800.”

A little determination then and a casual disregard for the finer things in life – the keys to a good run in the grand final. 160K and counting... and if he makes it to the money maybe he’d consider an upgrade...