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Dutch pro Ruben Visser has won the £5,250 PokerStars.com EPT London Main Event today for a £595,000 first prize.
The 24-year-old from Rotterdam won his seat for just £320 in a Deep Hyper-Turbo satellite on PokerStars. He beat Lithuanian Mantas Visockis heads-up to take down the tournament which started last Sunday with 647 players and a £3,137,950 prize pool.
Visser, who combines poker with studying for a Masters business degree, said today was “the best day of my poker career”. He had been bitterly disappointed to bust in eighth place at last season’s PCA, which he described as the worst day of his life.
He said: “This feels completely awesome. I’m extremely happy. I have been playing well in live tournaments in the last few years but now I just ran about £600,000 above expectation.”
Visser, whose best live result before today was runner-up in a €5,000 side event at the EPT6 Grand Final, has now accrued more than $1.7m in live tournament winnings and instantly shot up from 12th to fourth place in the Dutch All Time Money List. He has already cashed once at this season’s London Poker Festival, finishing eighth in the £2k NL Turbo.
In addition to his title and cash prize, Visser also received a stunning watch worth more than €5,000 from luxury Swiss brand Slyde, the Official Watch Sponsor for EPT9 Main Events.
Mantas “KRAFTY_LT” Visockis won £377,436 for his runner-up finish after a three-way deal with Visser and third-placed Olof Haglund from Sweden who took £427,564.
Fourth place went to Team PokerStars Pro Theo Jorgensen who was making his first appearance at a major live poker event after being shot in the leg by intruders at his home last December. Jorgensen, who takes £183,000 back to Copenhagen, was on his third EPT final table.
The final was disappointing for American Steve O’Dwyer who was also making his third EPT Main Event final table appearance – and second in a row in London. O’Dwyer, who was runner-up here last year and started today as chip leader, was eliminated in fifth place for £146,000.
Name Country PokerStars status £ Ruben Visser, Netherlands, PokerStars qualifier, £595,000 Mantas Visockis, Lithuania, £377,436, Olof Hagland, Sweden, PokerStars player, £427,564 Theo Jorgensen, Denmark, Team PokerStars Pro, £183,000 Steve O'Dwyer, USA, £146,000 Christopher Frank, Germany, PokerStars qualifier, £112,000 Tamer Kamel, UK, £79,950 Chris Moorman, UK, £57,000
Every single day of the EPT London Main Event was broadcast live on PokerStars.tv with commentary from Joe Stapleton, James Hartigan and a host of stars such as Daniel Negreanu, Lex Veldhuis, Liv Boeree and David Williams.
Nearly 30 members of Team PokerStars Pro competed in London, with Jason Mercier, Liv Boeree, Sandra Naujoks, David Williams, Rino Mathis and newest member Leo Margets all making the money. Among the celebrities who took part was British football legend Teddy Sheringham and French rap star Bruno "Kool Shen" Lopes.
The £10,000 EPT London High Roller event was won by British hedge fund manager Talal Shakerchi, who also won last season’s €10,000 High Roller Turbo at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final and was seventh in the EPT Barcelona €50,000 Super High Roller event in August. Jan Bendik, who is currently leading the EPT Player of the Year race, won the £1k Win the Button tourney. Team PokerStars Pro Ville Wahlbeck won the £10,000 8-Game Championships for £76,720, while fellow Pro Matthias De Meulder won the £1k NL "8 Handed" 30m levels event. EPT Barcelona champion Kent Lundmark won the £1k NL event and John Eames won the £2k.
This season, for the first time, the EPT joined forces with the UKIPT to create a 12-day mega-festival of poker featuring 37 events across two top London venues: the Grosvenor Victoria Casino (the Vic) and The Hippodrome Casino, home of the brand new "PokerStars LIVE" poker room. In total, more than £8 million was given away in prizes during the festival.
