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Gruffudd Pugh Jones is a Welsh professional poker player and one of the most exciting PLO talents to emerge from the UK in recent years. Known online as ‘d.apollo777’, he pulled off one of the most remarkable single-night performances in online poker history at the 2024 WCOOP — winning both the $10,300 and $1,050 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship Main Events on the same evening, within two hours of each other, for a combined $257,000. A cycling enthusiast as well as a committed grinder, Pugh-Jones has since backed that online dominance with significant live results, pushing his total recorded earnings past $2.6 million.
Career Earnings & Biggest Results
Total live earnings now exceed $2,635,000 across 19 recorded cashes, per The Hendon Mob. His most recent major cash was $173,000 in March 2026. His WCOOP online earnings are substantial but recorded separately from the live database.
💰 Live Earnings: $2,635,000+ | 🏆 WCOOP Titles: 2 | 🎯 Live Cashes: 19 | 🃏 Specialist: Pot Limit Omaha
Notable Results (click to expand)
| Date | Event | Result | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2024 | WCOOP $10,300 PLO World Championship (online) | 1st* | ~$165,000 |
| Oct 2024 | WCOOP $1,050 PLO World Championship (online) | 1st | $92,442 |
| Oct 2024 | PokerGO Tour PLO Series II – Event #7 | 2nd | $187,000 |
| Mar 2026 | Live high roller (unspecified) | – | $173,000 |
*WCOOP $10,300 result included a heads-up deal with defending champion Martin “Imbajimbaa” Dam.
Biography & Poker Background
Gruffudd Pugh-Jones plays his poker predominantly online, specialising in heads-up and six-max PLO cash games. He entered the wider poker world’s consciousness in October 2024 when he achieved something that had never been done before: winning two WCOOP PLO Main Events — at different buy-in levels — on the same night. He was playing both final tables simultaneously, with defending champion Martin Dam at the other end of both.
Away from the screen, Pugh-Jones is a keen cyclist, often riding in the mornings before sitting down to study and grind. He has spoken about the parallels between cycling and high-stakes poker — both demand sustained mental endurance, the capacity to suffer, and the ability to reset after setbacks.
His move into major live events accelerated in 2024 when he finished second at the PokerGO Tour PLO Series II in Las Vegas for $187,000 — a result that more than doubled his live earnings and introduced him to the live high roller community as a player to account for. The final table included PLO stalwarts Nick Schulman, Alex Foxen, and Artem Maksimov. A $173,000 cash in March 2026 confirmed that his transition to live poker is now well underway.
Pugh-Jones holds Welsh nationality, making him one of the top earners in Welsh poker history.
Play Style & Strategy
Pugh-Jones is a PLO specialist with a deep technical understanding of four-card games at their highest level. His online background in heads-up cash has sharpened his positional awareness and his ability to navigate complex multi-way pots — skills that are rare and valuable in live PLO high rollers.
The double WCOOP win demonstrated an exceptional capacity to manage pressure across simultaneous deep runs, a mental feat as much as a technical one. As he transitions further into live events, his biggest growth area is adapting to the gruelling multi-day grind of major festivals — something he has acknowledged takes a different kind of endurance than a single online session.
Social Media & Online Presence
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