An online poker player has taken online casino PokerStars.com to the High Court on the Isle of Man claiming she is owed well over half a million pounds.

The Court in Douglas has been hearing evidence that Natalie Telscher had a PokerStars.com account operated under the pseudonym 'the VOid' and took part in the World Championship of Online Poker’s No Limits Hold'Em Main Event tournament on September 30, 2007 along with 2,997 other users.

According the Isle of Man Today online newspaper, Telscher had a third party play on her behalf during the entire tournament, a situation that the online casino claims was a breach of tournament rules.

 After 22 hours of play, ‘the Void’ was one of two accounts left in the tournament and they agreed to split the prize but Telscher did not receive her $1.228 million payout.

Appearing in Court as Rational Entertainment Enterprises Limited, PokerStars.com stated that Telscher was not entitled to any winnings because she had contravened tournament rules in that she did not personally play the game.

Representatives for PokerStars.com claimed that Telscher never entered or played in the tournament, meaning that the firm was entitled to disqualify both her and the third party.

High Court judge David Doyle adjourned the case, stating that contractual issues had to first be determined before any other areas of the case could be addressed.

'This, on the face of it, is or should be a fairly simple case,” read his judgment.

“Either the plaintiff is contractually entitled to the monies or she is not. Either the defendant was entitled to disqualify the plaintiff or it was not.”