Last November, tragedy hit Double Bay, Australia, when a well-known professional poker player from the area ran into a cyclist with his car, resulting in the cyclist’s death. Warwick Mirzikinian, a 49-year-old poker player and businessman, crashed into 24-year-old French cyclist Julien Trameaux, who was working as a bicycle food courier at the time.
While Mirzikinian was named as the driver of the car after the incident, he was not officially charged at the time. That has now changed, and he has been cited with dangerous driving occasioning death and negligent driving occasioning death, authorities said.
The first offense carries a possible prison sentence of up to 10 years, and the second provides for up to 18 months behind bars. Mirzikinian could also be fined more than $10,000, and potentially face litigation by Trameaux’s family. He is still a free man, but will have to appear in court on April 18 to respond to the charges.
The Aussie poker pro has a long record of tournament wins behind him. His first cash came at the Aussie MILLIONS series in 2008, and he continued to work the tables until January of this year. He has earned about $756,000 in live tournaments, and his largest single cash win came at the 2017 Sydney Championships where he picked up a little more than $197,000. He’ll have a hard time living up to his promise of winning big at poker. After winning the Star Sydney Championships 6-Max event, Mirzikinian said, “I am going to do so much winning that people are going to get bored of me winning.”
Trameaux was described as an upbeat individual, who worked six days a week as a day laborer for a construction firm and would deliver meals for uberEats in the evenings, according to reports. Trameaux was also into fitness, as well as fundraising, and had competed in the Sydney Marathon to raise funds for a children’s school in the Congo.
