A Canadian plumber has traded toilet flushes for royal flushes, winning a million bucks in a poker tournament.

Jack Hinchey, a plumber from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, earlier this week won something called the World Poker Crown, a poker tournament run by online poker room 888.com.

The event started with 2,124 participants, who competed online until just eight players were left.

Those eight were then flown to Spain to play off the final table live and in person.

“This is a lot better than being in a sewage pit,” said Hinchey after the big win.

“My strategy was to keep the pressure on everybody,” he said. “I flubbed a few times in the middle, but it worked out in the end.”

The tourney had a $1,050 buy-in and a total prize pool of $3 million, and, according to 888.com, was the first in the world be streamed live on the Internet, with graphics and hole cards.

Finishing in second place in the event was Bjorn van Bavel of the Netherlands, followed by Mark Castonguay of Canada in third, Piotr Stanislaw of Poland in fourth, Bart Wetsteijn of the Netherlands in fifth, Michael Lawson of Canada in sixth, Bert van Doesburg of the Netherlands in seventh and Mark Rossler of Germany in eighth.

“I have a few regrets,” runnerup van Bavel, who earned $400,000, said after competition ended.

“I’m pretty happy with second, but once you get to heads-up, that all changes and you’re gunning for the win,” he said. “But I’m sure that $400,000 will make up for that. For the most part, I played a pretty tight-aggressive style. But heads-up I changed that and played pretty reckless, and that didn’t work for me.”

The tournament was taped for television, and is scheduled to be telecast throughout the world in a few weeks.

Among the countries to receive the telecast are Spain, Brazil, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland and Germany, but not the USA or Canada.

Announcers for the telecast are Jesse May and Padraig Parkinson.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)