He left school at 15 years old and was introduced to gambling at an early age, frequently visiting bookmakers with his father and placing bets on horse racing with his colleagues.

[2] Ulliott became part of a safe-cracking team after being told that all parties involved, including shop owners and local authorities, were complicit in the operation.

Following his arrest, Ulliott was held in a cell at Kingston upon Hull Police Station for three weeks before being transferred to Leeds Prison.

Afterward, he found employment at a timber yard but resumed his involvement with the safe-cracking team while also working as a bouncer and gambling.

[2] At the age of 28, Ulliott was arrested after a fight outside a nightclub and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, serving time in both Leeds and Durham facilities.

In private poker games, Ulliott sometimes brought a gun to ensure he could leave with his winnings, even firing it into the air on one occasion to scare off opponents who planned to rob him.

His breakthrough came in 1996 when he won £100,000 over a two-week period at The Vic in London, which encouraged him and his friend, Gary Whitaker, to travel to Las Vegas, Nevada, for the first time.

[3] Taking £10,000 with him, Ulliott maintained an even bankroll until he entered the $500 Pot Limit Omaha event at the 1997 Four Queens Poker Classic.

However, he managed to gather enough money to enter the $2,000 Pot Limit Texas Hold'em event, where he eventually faced fellow Englishman Chris Truby in heads-up play.

[8] Following his tournament win, Ulliott enjoyed a successful streak in cash games, netting between $10,000 and $20,000 daily for a two-week period.

During this stretch, and upon the advice of his friend Mansour Matloubi, he played a high-stakes heads-up Pot Limit Omaha match against Lyle Berman, winning $168,000.

He won his qualifying heat against a field that included Charalambos "Bambos" Xanthos and future Hendon Mobster Ross Boatman to advance to the Grand Final.

During the event, he made four of a kind against Joe Beevers, eliminated Liam Flood and slow-played three aces against Dave Welch.This prompted commentator Nic Szeremeta to say, "I've never seen a hand played so well."

Ulliott outlasted a field of 160 players, entering the final table with a 2:1 chip lead over his nearest rival, and taking first place and $589,175 after eliminating Phil Ivey.

[14][15] In December 2007, Ulliott came in 3rd place in the sixth season of the WPT Doyle Brunson Classic Championship Event earning $674,500.

Ulliott's total lifetime tournament winnings exceeded $6,200,000, putting him 11th on England's all-time money list, according to available records.

[25] In spring 2010, Penguin Books announced the publication of Ulliott's autobiography, Devilfish: The Life & Times of a Poker Legend, in September 2010.

She recounted her first meeting with Ulliott: In the winter of 1999, on the sixth floor of a Cardiff hotel, I walked into a lift to find it already occupied by an elderly couple and a tall, sinister-looking fellow in a black leather trench coat and red sunglasses.

[31][32] Despite the dominance of Texas Hold'em throughout televised poker, Ulliott had a reputation as a strong pot limit Omaha player, with over 40 finishes in the money in tournaments of that type.

Once, in an Omaha cash game at The Vic in 1997, he successfully read that Jon Shoreman had a straight flush and laid down a four of a kind.

After being eliminated in third place for $120,000 in the Full Tilt Poker invitational event at the 2005 Monte Carlo Millions, Ulliott stood up, flashing a "www.devilfishpoker.com" sign that was strapped to his back inside his jacket.

[21] In his later years, Ulliott attempted to change his image, no longer wearing slicked-back hair or sunglasses at the poker table.