A week of exciting poker wrapped up in London, the United Kingdom on Saturday night with Ruben Visser capturing his first major championship victory at the European Poker Tour Main Event at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino.
The final eight men came to the felt on noon Saturday (U. K. time) with Steve O’Dwyer, holding 5.27 million in chips, coming off enjoying his second night as the chip leader in the tournament. Visser was poised to strike in second place with his 3.64 million stack, along with Olof Haglund (2.755 million) and Christopher Frank (2.57 million). Down the leaderboard some history was looking to be made as Theo Jorgensen, on a short stack with 1.55 million, was looking to complete poker’s Triple Crown with a win in this tournament. On the bottom of the ladder were two local favorites, Chris Moorman (1.075 million) and Tamer Kamel (960,000), as well as Mantas Visockis (1.51 million), who had their work cut out for them if they were going to contend for this title.
The table wasted little time in getting to business, with the two first hands being taken down by three bets pre-flop (Jorgensen and Visockis were the beneficiaries). Moorman would try to get some action after Visser opened a pot by moving all in, but Visser wouldn’t bite and folded. Moorman would perform the same trick, this time against O’Dwyer, and it looked as if the British online pro would make some noise in the tournament. Unfortunately, a third push wouldn’t be as successful as the other two.
Moorman raised on the button and saw Jorgensen three-bet him to 280K from the big blind to essentially force Moorman into playing for his stack. After some thought, Moorman did move his chips to the center and Jorgensen called. It was one of those race situations, Moorman’s pocket sevens leading Jorgensen’s A-K, as the spectators in “The Vic” rose to cheer their hero. The flop silenced those cheers; coming down J-A-K, Moorman went from a slight edge to a significant underdog. Once the six on the turn and a nine on the river were unveiled, Moorman was out the door in eighth place.
Following Moorman’s departure, a change occurred atop the leaderboard. Haglund and O’Dwyer clashed in a hand that eventually saw O’Dwyer force Haglund all in. Haglund’s pocket Queens held favor over O’Dwyer’s Big Slick and, once the nine high board was rolled out, Haglund’s double up pushed him into the chip lead. In losing the hand, O’Dwyer saw his stack plummet to 1.6 million and put him among the short stacks.
After Haglund dismissed the other British hope, Kamel, from the final table, Haglund found himself with almost two times the chips of the then-second place Jorgensen. Visser would begin to emerge as a challenger when his pocket nines were able to eliminate Frank’s A-K in sixth place, pushing him to 5.9 million and moving him into second place.
Jorgensen was responsible for taking down the start-of-day chip leader O’Dwyer. After a Visser raise, O’Dwyer put a move on with an all-in from the small blind. Jorgensen, in the big blind, looked at his cards and moved all-in over the top, forcing Visser to send his cards to the muck. Jorgensen rolled over pocket Aces and O’Dwyer was forced to show his A-2 steal attempt. A deuce did come on the flop, but without another one on the turn or river, it wasn’t enough for O’Dwyer to take the hand as he departed the EPT London in fifth place.
Down to four players, Haglund and Visser were neck and neck for the lead until Haglund took a sizeable pot off of Jorgensen to put some space between him and Visser. Visser, in fact, would lose his second place slot to Visockis when the Lithuanian was able to hit a King on the river to push his K-Q to victory over Visser’s A-Q. Visser would come back, however, to take another hand against Visockis to retake the second place slot before a break.
Visser would take over the lead with the elimination of Jorgensen as darkness descended on “The Vic.” Visser opened the betting, but Jorgensen pushed the action with a three bet for more than half of his stack. Visser decided to attack the short stacked Jorgensen, who called off the remainder of his holdings and showed pocket fours, which led Visser’s A-8 off suit. All was good for the Danish pro through the Q-3-2-Q flop and turn, but the river Ace switched the fortunes towards Visser, while Jorgensen left the tournament floor in fourth place.
Following Jorgensen’s elimination, the three men remaining came to a deal for the remaining prize money. Visser (now the chip leader) would receive £455,000, Haglund £427,564 and Visockis £377,436. There was £140,000 put aside for the eventual champion, as well as the EPT London trophy, and the men went back to work to decide who that recipient would be.
From the time the deal was made, Visser never looked back. He pushed out to a 12 million chip stack by aggressively attacking Visockis and Haglund and, after Visser knocked off Haglund in third place, he held a 5:1 chip lead over Visockis. Over the next two hours, Visockis would attempt to fight back into the battle, but the chip deficit was too much to overcome. On the final hand, Visockis looked to double up with his pocket tens versus Visser’s A-Q, but it wasn’t to be; the 7-4-J-2 flop and turn had him in good shape, but Visser spiked a Queen on the river to end the tournament and take down the championship.
1. Ruben Visser, £595,000*
2. Mantas Visockis, £377,436*
3. Olof Haglund, £427,564*
4. Theo Jorgensen, £183,000
5. Steve O’Dwyer, £146,000
6. Christopher Frank, £112,000
7. Tamer Kamel, £79,950
8. Chris Moorman, £57,000
* – reflects three way deal
The victory by Visser is his first major championship, although he has a laundry list of success in tournament poker internationally. Previously, Visser had missed out on EPT gold twice, finishing as the runner up at the EPT Grand Final in 2010 and at the Deauville Main Event just last year. In addition to giving Visser that long elusive goal, the EPT London championship pushes his lifetime earnings just under the $2 million mark.
