After a week of competition, the final table for the European Poker Tour London Main Event is now set with Jeff Rossiter leading an international contingent of players to the felt this afternoon.
Sixteen men came back to the tables on Friday at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London to work their way down to the final eight, with David Yan heading the pack with his 5.205 million in chips. Yan, who had been around the upper reaches of the leaderboard throughout the week, was followed by several notable players including Robin Ylitalo, Jan Sjavik and Senh Ung, but the early action shuffled the standings to give no player a significant advantage.
The short stack at the start of action yesterday, Neophytos Neophytou, was able to hang around for a bit but a race took him out of the action. After a raise from Ung and a three bet from Rossiter, Neophytou found pocket Kings in his hand and moved his stack in Ung got out of the way, but Rossiter made a loose call with his A-2 to go to battle. The board was kind to Rossiter, coming down A-9-5 to put him in the lead. After the turn and river blanked, Rossiter had knocked out Neophytou in sixteenth place and moved up to 1.505 million in chips.
The next elimination came very soon after Neophytou’s departure and it was an even crueler beat. Georgios Karakousis made an initial bet, but Ludovic Geilich three bet him out of the hijack and Kully Sidhu popped him from the button. Kent Roed, in the small blind, took a moment to think before shoving his stack to the center. Karakousis and Geilich got out of the way immediately, but Sidhu, saying “If you have Aces, good luck,” made the call and the cards were tabled.
Roed, indeed, had the Aces for a massive hold on the hand over Sidhu’s pocket Kings and the A♠ 7♠ 6♥ pushed Roed further into the lead. An 8♠ opened a few doors for Sidhu (as he held the K♠) and Sidhu would bust through them with the Q♠ for a runner-runner spade flush to top Roed’s flopped set. The stunning hand left Roed with only 14K in chips after the stacks were counted down and he on the next hand to Yan to end Roed’s tournament in fifteenth place.
Over the next four hours, the field was whittled down to eleven players after Yan (who never got anything going on Friday) was eliminated in twelfth place. At this point, Karakousis had assumed the lead in the event, with Geilich, Ylitalo and Rossiter pursuing him. The eliminations of Javier Etayo (eleventh) and Ung (tenth) would bring the field down to the final nine players, only one left until the official final table was set.
Geilich was aggressive coming out of the gate, losing the first hand of the unofficial final table before taking the next two to move into third place behind Karakousis and Rossiter. Karakousis would lose that lead, however, in a battle against Ylitalo that saw the Swede bump the Greek down the ladder a bit. Undaunted, Karakousis continued to fire away and took the lead back after turning a set of Aces against Gelich’s rivered set of Queens.
Rossiter would put his name back in the mix in a battle against Karakousis. On a 3♠ 9♦ K♠ flop, Rossiter bet 115K and Karakousis simply called. A J♠ on the turn brought another bet out of Rossiter and another call by Karakousis. On the Q♣ river, Rossiter fired out again for 660K in chips and Karakousis called again, but mucked after seeing Rossiter’s 5♠ 4♠ for the turned flush. After the chips were pushed Rossiter’s way, he had nearly five million in his stack while Karakousis dropped to 4.4 million.
After over four hours of play, the nine men were no closer to setting the final table, although there were four short stacks (Leo McClean, Sidhu, Sjavik and Martin Koslov) that were in danger. Once play resumed after a break, Rossiter and Karakousis would continue to joust (with Rossiter continuing to come out on top) until Stefan Vagner eliminated Koslov in ninth place to set the final table.
1. Jeff Rossiter, 5.205 million
2. Georgios Karakousis, 4.39 million
3. Robin Ylitalo, 2.795 million
4. Stefan Vagner, 2.525 million
5. Leo McClean, 980,000
6. Jan Sjavik, 870,000
7. Ludovic Geilich, 805,000
8. Kully Sidhu, 560,000
There are two chances for the EPT London championship to stay in the United Kingdom (McClean and Sidhu) and Australia, Greece, Sweden, Slovakia, Norway and Germany are also represented at the final table.
The final table begins this afternoon at 1PM in London, with the eventual champion taking down the latest title on the EPT and a £560,980 payday.
