A payday of ₤900,000 is on the line for the winner of the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) London Main Event, which is currently taking place in the British city. Sixteen runners remain at the time of writing, led by online poker pro Kyle “kwob20” Bowker, who owns a stack of 3.8 million.
Who is Bowker, you ask? The New Yorker has two PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) titles and is a former winner of the PartyPoker $500,000 Guaranteed. His breakthrough moment in the live arena came after he finished 37th in the 2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event for $247,000. In December 2009, Bowker played second fiddle to fellow young gun Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki in the Harrah’s Atlantic City WSOP Circuit Championship.
John O’Shea busted in 17th place from EPT London. The youngster called all-in pre-flop with A-J of spades and found himself up against the A-5 of Artur Wasek. O’Shea, who hails from nearby Ireland, hit top pair on an all-club flop, but Wasek held the ace of the suit to pick up the nut flush draw. The turn put a fourth club on board and gave Wasek the win; O’Shea picked up £21,000 for his deep run.
WSOP bracelet winner Chance “Chances Cards” Kornuth, who started the day as the chip leader in London, 4bet all-in pre-flop with J-9 of diamonds only to run into Bowker’s wired pair of kings. Neither player improved, so Kornuth hit the skids in 18th place for the same £21,000. Bowker surged to over four million chips after the hand, but fell back somewhat after dropping a pot with jacks versus queens against Tom Marchese.
Allen Bari was ousted on Sunday in 19th place. He ran pocket nines head on into Marchese’s wired pair of ladies and no help came on the flop, turn, or river. Marchese sits in third on the EPT London leaderboard at the time of writing with a stack of 2.5 million, but is still 1.3 million behind Bowker.
PokerStars pro Chad Brown finished in 23rd after 3betting all-in before the flop with J-10 of spades. Robert Nulli called with A-K and promptly flopped an ace to take a commanding lead. A running 4-Q sealed Brown’s face and the longtime veteran hit the exit of the Hilton Metropole in London.
The field of 16 players remaining includes former WSOP Europe Main Event winner John Juanda, a sponsored pro of Full Tilt Poker. Juanda last cashed in an EPT tournament one year ago, placing 40th in the 2009 EPT London Main Event. He’s fresh off a quartet of final tables at the 2010 WSOP, including a fourth place effort in the $50,000 Player’s Championship for well over $400,000. 2010 WSOP November Nine member Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi took down the latter event for his first bracelet.
Also still alive is 2005 WSOP Main Event champ Joe Hachem. The PokerStars pro, who is quite literally on the other side of the world from his home in Australia, is the low man on the totem pole with a stack of 530,000. Hachem’s last EPT cash came in 2008 at the Monte Carlo Grand Final.
Here’s how the field of 16 stacks up in EPT London:
1. Kyle Bowker – 3,800,000
2. Per Ummer – 3,077,000
3. Tom Marchese – 2,550,000
4. Rumit Somaiya – 1,973,000
5. Kayvan Payman – 1,700,000
6. Artur Wasek – 1,500,000
7. David Vamplew – 1,500,000
8. Thomas Bichon – 1,436,000
9. John Juanda – 1,385,000
10. Fernando Brito – 1,300,000
11. Steven Levy – 1,300,000
12. John Hall – 1,200,000
13. Robert Nulli – 830,000
14. Matt Perrins – 700,000
15. Jannick Wrang – 597,000
16. Joe Hachem – 530,000
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from EPT London.
