After nearly ten hours of battle in the Grosvenor Victoria Casino poker table in London, American Michael Martin emerged victorious over an international field to capture the European Poker Tour’s London championship.
The action kicked off promptly on Sunday afternoon with Sweden’s Michael Tureniec as the chip leader with slightly over 1.3 million in chips. He was closely pursued by another American, CardRunners pro Eric Liu, and EPT veteran Anthony Lellouche from France. From the start, however, it was obvious that it was a wide open race.
The most surprising occurrance was the early departure of Lellouche from the eight-man table. He had been hovering around the top of the leader board for much of the four days at the Vic, but suffered some untimely bad luck. After doubling up Germany’s Johannes Strassmann, the two gentlemen went to war again with Lellouche’s tournament life on the line. Although Anthony’s A-9 held a slim pre-flop edge over Johannes’ K-J, a king on the flop was enough to boot the Frenchman from the table with a $114,218 payday for eighth place.
Strassmann’s survival was short-lived, as he proceeded to ship a significant portion of his stack to Team PokerStars Pro member Marcin Horecki before eventual champion Martin’s A-Q outran his pocket jacks and sent the German out in seventh.
Two men who never seemed to get any traction at the final table were also two of the shorter stacked players from its start. Martin took care of sixth place finisher Alan Smurfit when the Irishman couldn’t find an ace against Martin’s pocket jacks and, twenty minutes later, fifth place finisher Philippe D’Auteuil got the remainder of his chips into the center holding pocket eights; unfortunately for him, Horecki tabled pocket kings that held up.
In taking out three of the first four players between them, Horecki and Martin were able to drive their way towards the top of the leader board. Eric Liu was chip leader with four players to go, holding more than half of the chips in play until he doubled up Horecki and gave up the lead just before the dinner break. After the break, Liu continued his downward slide as he doubled up Tureniec and was never able to recover, leaving the EPT final table in fourth place after his J-10 failed to improve against Martin’s A-9.
Martin continued to catch good hands and have them hold up, as he was responsible for getting the table down to heads-up play. After an all in raise from Horecki on the button, Martin re-raised all in from the small blind to push Tureniec out of the hand. When the cards were flipped, Martin’s K-J held a sizeable edge over Horecki’s K-8. An eight on the turn brought the crowd to its feet in the Vic, but Horecki’s momentary elation over his outdrawing Martin quickly turned to despair. A jack came on the river, giving the hand to Martin on the redraw and eliminating Horecki in third place.
Martin started heads up play with a nearly 3:1 chip lead over Tureniec, but the PokerStars qualifier from Sweden was able to double through the American a few hands after heads-up action began and draw even. Over the next hour and a half, the duo jousted with each other with no one able to draw to a significant edge.
As much as that time was a significant strategic battle, the swiftness of the final hands was stunning to many in the audience. After pre-flop action on a seemingly innocent board of J-10-6-3, Tureniec popped a 350K bet into the 500K pot, which was called by Martin. Another jack on the river brought another bullet from Tureniec in the form of 680K and Martin once again called the Swede down. Tureniec then showed his highly aggressive play with only a Queen high hand; Martin took the pot when he showed K-10 for jacks up and seized control of the match.
The next hand, Martin announced all in and was called by Tureniec, who tabled K-9. Martin had the edge with his pocket fours and loved the 2-3-6 flop. A four on the turn gave Martin a set, but opened the door for a split pot with a five. Once another deuce came on the river, Michael Martin was able to celebrate his victory at the EPT London.
The final results and the well earned payouts at the final table were:
1. Michael Martin, United States, $1,765,173
2. Michael Tureniec, Sweden, $926,861
3. Marcin Horecki, Poland, $535,701
4. Eric Liu, United States, $415,255
5. Phillipe D’Auteuil, Canada, $346,045
6. Alan Smurfit, Ireland $271,115
7. Johannes Strassmann, $213,436
8. Anthony Lellouche, $114,218
While the High Roller event is still on tap for some of the players in London, the rest of the European poker scene will look forward to the EPT Hungarian Open in Budapest on October 28th. For now, though, Michael Martin can revel in the glory that is being a champion on the European Poker Tour.