EPT London: A Chip And A Chair

Published on 06 Oct 08 11:02 by Drakhor

"A chip and a chair is all you need." This already legendary line experienced a sensational revival in yesterday's finale of the PokerStars European Poker Tour London.

The only 24-year old US American Michael Martin managed the near impossible. With blinds of 40,000/80,000 he only had about 95,000 chips in front of him - and thus only slightly more than a big blind. However, Martin not only started a furious race to catch up, he also ended up on rank 1 of the £5,000 No-Limit Hold'em tournament at the end of the day and thus secured £1,000,000.

The furious Comeback of Michael Martin

At first, Martin doubled through twice in a row within only a few hands. After that, he eliminated the long-term chip leader Eric Liu, thus becoming the chip leader himself for the first time. From then on, the young American dominated the events at the final table almost at will. It seemed as if he simply hit every flop - and with his continuation bets, he put the pedal to the metal.

Against the Pole Horecki the next spectacular showdown took place. Both players had an incredible amount of luck at the final table before they clashed with (Martin) and (Horecki). The board delivered - as so often yesterday evening - a literal roller coaster ride. The flop of was followed by the on the turn, which put the Pole in the lead. However, the on the river turned the tables, gave Martin the higher pair, and sent Horecki to the rail.

Heads-up

Afterwards, Martin started into the heads-up with a chip lead of almost 5:1, and it seemed to become a rather short-lived event, as already a few hands later the first all-in took place. for Martin was facing for Tureniec. However, the board came with and put the Swede back into the race again with trips aces.

The later one then turned up the heat himself and evened out the chip count for the first time, before losing a big pot and thus ending up behind again. Before the decision fell, this game repeated itself twice more.

With almost evened chip counts, the board showed and the Swede fired his first barrel, which the American called. The turn brought the , and the Swede fired a second barrel. On the river came the and Tureniec bet another 680k in the 1.2M pot. Martin pondered for quite some time before he called and showed a ten for the pair. The Swede flipped over Q high and thus only had air. 2.6M chips went to Martin, who thus held 4.3M compared to 1.7M chips.

A bit later, Martin found pocket fours and put the Swede all-in, who called with . A four on the turn gave the American the set of fours and sealed the deal - Martin was the winner of the EPT London 2008.

Straßmann Seventh

The last German in the tournament and sponsored PokerStars.de player Johannes Straßmann had to be content with rank 7. Straßmann had his own roller coaster ride at the final table, before he had to submit with against for Michael Martin. Already the flop of turned the coin flip into a rather clear situation when it gave the American the top pair. Unfortunately, Johannes lacked the luck to hit his 2-outer and thus he "only" finished on rank 7 for £120,723.

High Roller Event Live today

Today at around 14:00 CET, PokerStars.TV broadcasts the final table of the £20,000 High Roller Event.

The field of participants sounds like the Who is Who of the poker scene, and you can expect another exciting finale once again.

EPT London 2008 Results
Rank	Name	Country	Prize money
1	Michael Martin	USA	£1,000,000
2	Michael Tureniec	Sweden	£525,314
3	Marcin Horecki	Poland	£303,439
4	Eric Liu	USA	£234,920
5	Philippe D'Auteuil	Canada	£195,766
6	Alan Smurfit	Ireland	£153,351
7	Johannes Straßmann	Germany	£120,723
8	Antony Lellouche	France	£81,569

Origin of photo material: PokerStars Blog