POKERSTARS QUALIFIER RUBEN VISSER TAKES DOWN THE
POKERSTARS.COM EPT LONDON MAIN EVENT FOR £595,000
London, UK, March 16, 2013: Dutch pro Ruben Visser
has won the £5,250 PokerStars.com EPT London Main Event today
for a £595,000 first prize.
The 24-year-old from Rotterdam won his seat for just £320
in a Deep Hyper-Turbo satellite on PokerStars. He beat Lithuanian
Mantas Visockis heads-up to take down the tournament which started
last Sunday with 647 players and a £3,137,950 prize pool.
Visser, who combines poker with studying for a Masters business
degree, said today was “the best day of my poker career”.
He had been bitterly disappointed to bust in eighth place at last
season’s PCA, which he described as the worst day of his life.
He said: “This feels completely awesome. I’m extremely
happy. I have been playing well in live tournaments in the last
few years but now I just ran about £600,000 above expectation.”
Visser, whose best live result before today was runner-up in a
€5,000 side event at the EPT6 Grand Final, has now accrued
more than $1.7m in live tournament winnings and instantly shot up
from 12th to fourth place in the Dutch All Time Money List. He has
already cashed once at this season’s London Poker Festival,
finishing eighth in the £2k NL Turbo.
In addition to his title and cash prize, Visser also received
a stunning watch worth more than €5,000 from luxury Swiss brand
Slyde, the Official Watch Sponsor for EPT9 Main Events.
Mantas “KRAFTY_LT” Visockis won £377,436 for
his runner-up finish after a three-way deal with Visser and third-placed
Olof Haglund from Sweden who took £427,564.
Fourth place went to Team PokerStars Pro Theo Jorgensen who was
making his first appearance at a major live poker event after being
shot in the leg by intruders at his home last December. Jorgensen,
who takes £183,000 back to Copenhagen, was on his third EPT
final table.
The final was disappointing for American Steve O’Dwyer who
was also making his third EPT Main Event final table appearance
– and second in a row in London. O’Dwyer, who was runner-up
here last year and started today as chip leader, was eliminated
in fifth place for £146,000. Every single day of the EPT London
Main Event was broadcast live on PokerStars.tv with commentary from
Joe Stapleton, James Hartigan and a host of stars such as Daniel
Negreanu, Lex Veldhuis, Liv Boeree and David Williams.
Nearly 30 members of Team PokerStars Pro competed in London, with
Jason Mercier, Liv Boeree, Sandra Naujoks, David Williams, Rino
Mathis and newest member Leo Margets all making the money. Among
the celebrities who took part was British football legend Teddy
Sheringham and French rap star Bruno "Kool Shen" Lopes.
The £10,000 EPT London High Roller event was won by British
hedge fund manager Talal Shakerchi, who also won last season’s
€10,000 High Roller Turbo at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino
EPT Grand Final and was seventh in the EPT Barcelona €50,000
Super High Roller event in August. Jan Bendik, who is currently
leading the EPT Player of the Year race, won the £1k Win the
Button tourney. Team PokerStars Pro Ville Wahlbeck won the £10,000
8-Game Championships for £76,720, while fellow Pro Matthias
De Meulder won the £1k NL "8 Handed" 30m levels
event. EPT Barcelona champion Kent Lundmark won the £1k NL
event and John Eames won the £2k.
This season, for the first time, the EPT joined forces with the
UKIPT to create a 12-day mega-festival of poker featuring 37 events
across two top London venues: the Grosvenor Victoria Casino (the
Vic) and The Hippodrome Casino, home of the brand new "PokerStars
LIVE" poker room. In total, more than £8 million was
given away in prizes during the festival.
Name Country PokerStars status £
1 Ruben Visser Netherlands PokerStars qualifier £595,000
2 Mantas Visockis Lithuania £377,436
3 Olof Hagland Sweden PokerStars player £427,564
4 Theo Jorgensen Denmark Team PokerStars Pro £183,000
5 Steve O'Dwyer USA £146,000
6 Christopher Frank Germany PokerStars qualifier £112,000
7 Tamer Kamel UK £79,950
8 Chris Moorman UK £57,000
The next event of EPT Season 9 is the €5,300 EPT Berlin event
which for the first time will be including the €1,000 + €100
Berlin Cup. The festival is running April 17 - 27, 2013 at the Grand
Hyatt Berlin. Satellites can be found online at PokerStars.com,
as well as for the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand
Final. See www.ept.com for further
details.
