The final table for the European Poker Tour stop at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino (“The Vic”) was set on Friday, with Steve O’Dwyer fending off challenges to his place atop the ladder to lead the eight men left to the big money.
15 men came to the felt on Friday and, unlike the action on Thursday, they were a bit more considering of their actions. It only took six hours on Thursday to whittle the field from 32 down to the 15 contenders, but it was expected that it would take at least that long (if not more) to knock off seven more to determine the final table. It proved to be a grind for those that made it deep into the event.
Ruben Visser was one of the early movers in the Friday play, taking two hands against Chris Moorman with moves that Moorman lacked the cards to back up. Moorman had other issues with players at his patch of felt, losing some chips to Bassel Moussa after Moussa used an all-in tactic, leaving him with only around 600K in chips to do battle with. As it would prove out, that was enough to let Moorman stick around in the fight.
Play would go through a break before the first casualty of the day would be determined. Day Three chip leader Pasi Sormunen had been a force with his chip stack and aggressive play early in the event, but he eventually found himself all in against Moorman. With only a Q-9 against Moorman’s A-5, the 5-K-9 actually put Sormunen into the lead. A deuce on the turn changed nothing, but the five on the river flipped the hand to Moorman to eliminate Sormunen in fifteenth place in the tournament after almost two hours of play.
Moorman continued to march up the board with the influx of Sormunen’s chips. He pulled a 400K pot against Nicolas Chouity to break the million chip mark and was able to ride that stack for some time. The leader, however, was moving the bar much higher than where Moorman was.
O’Dwyer bided his time, actually losing the chip lead, until he found his moment to strike. On a board of 6-6-7-Q-3, O’Dwyer bet and found a caller in Theo Jorgensen. When O’Dwyer unveiled an A-6 for flopped trips, Jorgensen was unable to find a response and pitched his cards to the muck, solidifying O’Dwyer’s lead.
After the second break of the day, the players began to get a bit more active. Moussa knocked off David Colin in 14th place, then Jorgensen administered the rights to Mikhail Korotkikh in 13th place. After Daniel Erlandsson (12th), Chouity (11th) and Niall Farrell (10th) fell away from the field, the final nine men gathered to determine the official EPT eight-handed final table.
Coming back from a short break to convene the nine survivors, Visser had assumed the lead, but Christopher Frank and O’Dwyer were within 800,000 chips of knocking him from that perch. Olof Haglund had made a strong stride from his start of day short stack to be in fourth, while Moorman, Moussa and Jorgensen were at the bottom of the ladder.
The players shuffled some chips between each other before two pivotal hands put O’Dwyer back atop the leaderboard. On the first, O’Dwyer three bet a Mantas Visockis raise to see a J-6-4 two diamond flop. After a dual check, another Jack hit the turn, which Visockis checked. O’Dwyer fired out a bet, which was called by Visockis, and the two saw a six come on the river. Visockis checked again and O’Dwyer fired again for a sizeable bet. Visockis didn’t believe him, making the call immediately, then almost as quickly firing his cards to the muck when O’Dwyer displayed a J-2 for trips.
On the next hand, Moussa would move all in with pocket fives and O’Dwyer would find Big Slick to his liking to challenge. An Ace on the flop left Moussa drawing to two outs, which didn’t come on the turn or river to set up the final table for Saturday’s action:
1. Steve O’Dwyer, 5.27 million
2. Ruben Visser, 3.64 million
3. Olof Haglund, 2.755 million
4. Christopher Frank, 2.57 million
5. Theo Jorgensen, 1.55 million
6. Mantas Visockis, 1.51 million
7. Chris Moorman, 1.075 million
8. Tamer Kamel, 960,000
This is an outstanding final table for a tournament, one befitting of such an event as the EPT London. Although he has a World Poker Tour National series title to his credit, O’Dwyer is still seeking that major tournament championship that would put him on the tournament poker map. Visser is a serious challenger, as is Jorgensen, and any of the men arranged at the final table could prove to be a thorn in the side for those that seem to be comfortable.
At noon on Saturday (7AM Eastern Time), these eight men will come back together to determine the champion of the EPT London. While the bottom rung of the ladder pays a nice £57,000, the true dream for them all this evening is the £700,000 at the end of the day.
