Ruben Visser wins EPT London Main Event

A huge PokerPlayer congratulations to Dutchman, Ruben Visser, this year’s EPT London Main Event champion. The £595k win, which is by far the biggest of the young pro’s short career, came as no great shock considering the 24-year old Entrepreneurship and New Business Venturing student has already collected two six-figure cashes on the EPT so far this year. The most recent coming courtesy of a second place finish at the High Roller event in Deauville last month. But despite his clear abundance of talent, the victory was anything but simple. The biggest hurdle standing in Visser’s way was undoubtably a final table that featured four out of eight players with career tournament earnings in excess of $1 million. 

 

Always a glamourous, star-studded affair, this year’s EPT London £5,250 buy-in Main Event was no different, attracting a field of 647 of the games top players, along with a total prize pool of just over £3,137,950. 

 

With five gruelling days of action-packed poker behind them, the final eight players returned to the infamous Victoria Grosvenor Casino on Saturday to decide who would be crowned this year’s Main Event champion. One of the favourites, despite his modest stack was the prolific tournament specialist Chris Moorman, but his lack of chips proved too big a hurdle and Moorman ended up being eliminated first in eighth place when his sevens lost out to Theo Jorgensen’s Ace-King.

 

Next to hit the rail was fellow UK player, Tamer Kamel, when his Ace-Ten came up short against chip leader Olof Haglund’s King-Queen in another all-in battle. Shortly after, it was the turn of Christopher Frank whose Ace-King lost to Visser’s nines. 

 

The next casualty was arguably the biggest of the day. Steve O’Dwyer who came into the final table with a big reputation and an even bigger stack, had started the final table as the chip leader but a few bad decisions and an unlucky run saw his stack quickly dwindle away. Running out of patience, O’Dwyer had to start forcing the action and an untimely shove over the top of Visser’s early raise with only Ace-Two would prove his final undoing. Unfortunately for O’Dwyer, Theo Jorgensen had been dealt pocket aces right behind him and when his hand diddn’t improve it was the end of the road for last year’s runner-up.

 

Jorgensen followed O’Dwyer in fourth place and with play down to the final three a deal was struck between the remaining players. It saw chip leader Ruben Visser guaranteed £455,000, Olof Haglund £427,564 and Mantas Visockis £377,436, while the remaining £140,000 would go to the eventual winner.

 

Despite his big stack at the time of the deal, Haglund would play no part in claiming any of the extra £140k, when Visser’s Ace-8 beat the Swede’s King-Jack and Haglund would have to settle for a mere £427,564.

 

With the final two set, it would take over two hours for Visser to eventually dispatch of Lithuanian, Mantas Visockis. The deciding hand came when Visockis got his short stack in with tens verses the Ace-Queen of Visser. The flop helped neither player, nor did the turn and Visockis looked set for a much needed double-up, but a queen of hearts on the river spelt disaster for the Lithuanian and glory for the Dutchman who was crowned champion and saw his total career earnings rise to more than $1 million. 

 

The next stop on this seasons European Poker Tour is Berlin, which will play host to the penultimate leg of the tour from April 17-27. Following that it’s on to Monaco for the Grand Final from May 6-15.

Here is how the final table finished up: