The final table of the European Poker Tour London main event was one of the most interesting and exciting final tables in EPT history because 4 of 8 finalists were well known talents in the poker world: Steve O'Dwyer, Theo Jorgensen, Ruben Visser and Chris Moorman.
The first player to hit the rail ended up being Chris Moorman. Moorman, who began the day as one of the short stacks, went all in with pocket sevens against ace-king of Theo Jorgensen. Jorgensen flopped 2 pairs and the rest of the board was no good for the Brit (8th place £57,000).
The next player to be eliminated was Tamer Kamel, the last standing Brit after the exit of Moorman. Kamel had been hanging on for quite some time with a short stack when he decide to try his luck with ace-ten. Olof Haglund, from Sweden, called the all in with king-queen suited and paired up with the board to eliminate Kamel in 7th place for £79,950.
Christopher Frank, 18, had impressed everyone throughout the week at EPT London, but his run ended in sixth place after he failed to pair up with ace-king versus Ruben Visser's pocket nines (all in pre flop). The young German seemed pretty happy with getting £112,00 in his first major tournament, though.
Steve O'Dwyer, who started the final table with the largest stack, finished second in this event last season and was hungry for revenge. But 25 minutes after the departure of Christopher Frank, his tournament life came to an abrupt end. O'Dwyer shoved with A2 only to be called by Team PokerStars Pro Theo Jorgsen with pocket aces. The American poker pro looked extremely unhappy with his fourth place finish and to have missed out on yet another EPT title.
"I knew this is an extremely tough final table and even though I had a decent amount of chips in play there was no guarantee that I would be able to do better than that," he said. "Or even equal it. It's very, very tough line up and I was well aware that this could be the result. So unfortunately it was."
There were several big hands after O'Dwyer had hit the rail, including Visockis doubling up through Visser to take the lead. However, Visser eventually overtook the lead once again...
Four-handed play had been going on for about two hours when Visser and Theo Jorgensen shoved. Jorgensen held pocket fours and Visser had ace-eight. The flop came out Q
3
2 and things were looking good for the Danish pro. The turn was the Q
and Jorgesen was 83.36% favourite to win the pot. Texas Hold'em can be a cruel game and it certainly was this time as the A completed the board and sent Jorgsen packing.
The tournament paused right after Jorgensen's departure whilst the final three players, Haglund, Visser and Visockis, made a deal. The deal left £140,000 on the table left to play for, along with the title, the EPT trophy and a Slyde watch.
Visser attacked his opponents immediately and it didn't take long before he sent Haglund, of Sweden, packing with ace-eight vs king-jack and brought a 15.5 million to 3.7 million chip advantage to heads up.
Many expected Visser to defeat Mantas Visockis fairly easy with such a massive lead, but the Lithuanian hanged on for about 2 hours and almost managed to close the gap at one point. Here is how the final hand was played out:
Vissner opened to 250k and snap-called when Visockis went all in for around 4 million.
Visockis 1010
Visser: AQ
The board ran out 74J2Q to see Visser pair up on the river and win the tournament!
Final table results:
1. Ruben Visser Netherlands 595,000
2. Mantas Visockis Lithuania 377,436
3. Olof Haglund Sweden 427,564
4. Theo Jorgensen Denmark 183,000
5. Steve O'Dwyer USA 146,000
6. Christopher Frank Germany 112,000
7. Tamer Kamel UK 79,950
8. Chris Moorman UK 57,000
