Although two men came to the table on Saturday afternoon with a shot at becoming only the second two-time winner in European Poker Tour history, Sebastian Pauli denied both of them – including runner-up Kevin MacPhee – en route to taking down the EPT London at the Grand Connaught Rooms in the United Kingdom.
Pauli started the final table as the massive chip leader with 6.13 million in chips, but the rest of the field behind him were packed tightly together. In fact, five men – MacPhee, Artur Koren, Kevin Killeen, Jonathan Bensadoun and previous EPT champion Jake Cody – were separated by roughly 300K in chips and all were over the two million mark. It was going to be tough for Jakub Mroczek and a short-stacked Pablo Gordillo to garner any momentum towards taking the championship.
Although there was some action in the span, the first 60 hands passed with little change on the leaderboard. Pauli was running the table while Cody and MacPhee gradually worked their ways into the second and third place slots, respectively. On Hand 65, the first elimination would occur as Killeen and Gordillo (with nearly equal stacks) squared off pre-flop with Killeen holding pocket treys and Gordillo an A-10. A trey on the flop gave Killeen a nearly unbeatable hand and, after the board paired on the turn, it was unbeatable as Gordillo headed out in eighth place. Only two hands later, Bensadoun would be next to go after he ran his A-Q into the pocket Kings of Koren. A Queen would tease Bensadoun on the flop but, once he couldn’t find another Queen or an Ace, he was out in seventh.
The remaining six men would then go another 50 hands before eliminating another player. After the start of Level 30 (50K/100K blinds, 10K ante), Killeen would use pocket tens to defeat Mroczek’s A-8 and move into the second place slot behind Pauli (who was still cruising with over 8 million in chips). Soon afterwards, the end would come for one of the men looking to join Vicky Coren-Mitchell as the only two-time winner on the EPT.
After doubling up MacPhee on Hand 136, Cody was left with slightly more than 1.3 million chips and they would go into the pot three hands later. MacPhee opened the action and, after a call from Cody, saw a J-K-K flop hit the felt. Cody would check-raise all in a MacPhee bet and was a huge leader, his K-10 finding gold against MacPhee’s pocket Queens. The turn, however, came with one of the two remaining ladies in the deck, catapulting MacPhee into the lead and leaving Cody looking for a Jack to pair the board or the case King to top MacPhee. When a little deuce hit the river, Cody was done in fifth place.
With the elimination of Cody, MacPhee now moved up to become the challenger to Pauli (although he was still over 4 million chips behind him). Killeen attempted to keep pace with Pauli and MacPhee in elimination Koren in fourth place and discussions began about making a deal for the remaining prize money. After roughly ten minutes, though, the trio could not come to a consensus and the tournament continued.
Pauli would dominate three-handed play, moving out to nearly 11 million in chips as Killeen and MacPhee floundered. Instead of taking on the big stack, Killeen and MacPhee targeted each other and, on Hand 175, MacPhee would eliminate Killeen in what turned out to be a stunning hand.
Killeen moved all in from the button and MacPhee, in the small blind, made the call. MacPhee held the lead pre-flop with his A-Q over Killeen’s A-7, but an 8-4-7 flop caught on Killeen’s low card to give him the lead. An Ace came on the turn, moving Killeen up to two pair, but the Queen on the river wasn’t what he wanted to see as it gave MacPhee a better two pair. After the chips were counted, Killeen was the player at risk with just a few big blinds less than MacPhee and he was eliminated in third place.
Holding a 5 million chip lead, deal discussions between Pauli and MacPhee resumed but, once again, a deal couldn’t be struck. Instead, Pauli used his big stack to never allow MacPhee back into the event. On the final hand, MacPhee made a standard raise to 320K with an A-10 and Pauli, with an A-Q, three bet the action. MacPhee decided to make his stand, moving all in, and Pauli immediately made the call. Once the board ran out K-6-6-4-8, MacPhee failed to catch and was out in second place while Pauli celebrated becoming the latest champion on the EPT.
1. Sebastian Pauli, £499,700
2. Kevin MacPhee, £308,500
3. Kevin Killeen, £220,500
4. Artur Koren, £168,900
5. Jake Cody, £133,800
6. Jakub Mroczek, £104,200
7. Jonathan Bensadoun, £75,900
8. Pablo Gordillo, £51,900
