Sebastian Pauli scored a start to finish victory in the EPT London Main Event, in the heads-up he defeated Kevin MacPhee, who was aiming to win his second EPT. Meanwhile, Andrew Chen won the £10,300 High Roller.
Play started with the following stacks and players:
Sebastian Pauli – 6.130.000
Kevin Killeen – 2.470.000
Kevin MacPhee – 2.430.000
Artur Koren – 2.420.000
Jonathan Bensadoun – 2.340.000
Jake Cody – 2.156.000
Jakub Mroczek – 1.325.000
Pablo Gordillo – 975.000
Play started off very aggressively, the first 1 hour of the finale was probably the most exciting start to an EPT final table ever, players battled for every pot and we could witness some remarkable plays, for instance Jake Cody folding AQ on a T-T-8-6-Q board to a single river bet against Killeen’s K-K.
Despite the aggressive dynamics, it took several hours before the first player busted, in the end Pablo "gordijú" Gordillo was the first player to bust, he called an all-in with A-T against Killeen, who was playing with 3-3. The J-4-3-J-9 board improved Killeen to a full house, and with that the young Spanish pro hit the rail.
The next player to bust was Jonathan Bensadoun, he lost his chips with A-Q against Artur Koren’s K-K.
After this there were several double ups and the stacks were quite even, the only player who had more than average chips was Sebastian Pauli.
The next player to bust was Jakub Mroczek, the Polish player shoved with A8 but was crushed by Killeen’s T-T and failed to improve.
After this Kevin MacPhee and Jake Cody clashed in multiple hands. First, MacPhee doubled up when his all-in with A8 suited was called by Cody’s QJ suited. Then Cody shoved with KJ, got called by MacPhee’s 66, and even though Cody hit a King on the flop, the two players chopped the pot after 5 hearts hit the board to make both players a flush.
In the very next hand Cody called a raise with K-T suited in the big blind, then check/raised all-in on the K-K-J flop, MacPhee, the original raiser, snapcalled with QQ. Cody was in great shape to double up, but MacPhee hit a Queen on the turn. Cody needed help on the river but failed to get there and busted in fifth place.
The fourth place finisher was Artur Koren, he limp-called all-in from the small blind against Kevin Killeen with 88, Killeen held QJ and caught two pair to bust Koren.
During the 3-handed phase players discussed making a deal, but Pauli, who had a big chiplead, wasn’t satisfied with the ICM numbers, so play continued.
Kevin Killeen busted in third place, he ran his A-7 into MacPhee’s A-Q and failed to improve.
After a short break the heads-up started, MacPhee had 7.45 million chips while Pauli had 12.8 million. The German player started with 6 million chips, went up to 7 million and never went below that.
MacPhee was close to getting the chiplead, but he lost two big hands. First, Pauli hit two pair in 3bet pot with 74 suited against MacPhee’s 9-8 on the 9-4-2-7-Q board, then he lost with 7-7 against Pauli’s A-A on the 4-2-8-8-8 board.
After these two hands MacPhee was shortstacked, and soon busted, after raising and 4bet jamming with A-T, Pauli snapcalled with A-Q and managed to hold, so MacPhee has to put his two-time champion dreams on a hold for a while.
Final table results:
1 Sebastian Pauli Germany £499,700
2 Kevin MacPhee USA £308,500
3 Kevin Killeen Ireland £220,500
4 Arture Koren Germany £168,900
5 Jake Cody UK £133,800
6 Jakub Mroczek Poland £104,200
7 Jonathan Bensadoun France £75,900
Meanwhile, the £10,300 High Roller started with 10 players. Johnny Lodden was the first player to bust, he shoved with 11 big blinds and A-5, got called by Craig McCorkell’s A-9 and failed to improve. The next player out was Niall Farrell, who shoved with J-J, got called by Leonid Markin A-T, who hit an Ace on the flop.
The next player to bust was the 2014 WSOP November Nine chipleader Jorryt van Hoof, he got all of his chips in with 7-7 on a 3-7-4 flop, but Markin held the 6-5 for a flopped straight, and van Hoof couldn’t fill up on the turn or river. After busting, he jumped straight into the battles of the £5,000 No Limit Hold’em Turbo, where he finished on the final table aswell.
Seventh place finisher was Philippe "takechip" D’Auteuil, he shoved with K6 suited, got called by Fady Kamar’s T-T and failed to improve.
Martin Quack busted in 6th after losing a flip with K-J to Kamar’s 6-6. Kamar was luckier with K-J a couple of minutes later, he hit a Jack against Salman Behbehani’s KQ in a preflop all-in.
Leonard Markin finished in 4th place, he lost a big pot against Andrew Chen to lose most of his stack, then shoved with K-3 suited, only to be picked off by McCorkell’s J-J.
After a couple of all-ins and double-ups Chen won a big flip with 8-8 against McCorkell’s K-Q to eliminate the British pro in third place.
Kamar started the heads-up with a slight lead, but Chen won a huge pot when the two players got all-in on the Q-8-2-7 board. Kamar had 8-7 but Chen had the Q-8 for top two pair. Kamar was left with just two big blinds, which he lost in the next hand in an A-9 vs. 8-8 all-in.
Final table results:
1. Andrew Chen £394,200
2 Fady Kamar £267,000
3 Craig McCorkell £178,000
4 Leonid Markin £145,800
5 Salman Behbehani £117,000
6 Martin Quack £90,700
7 Philippe D’Auteuil £67,200
With that, the EPT London has ended, the next stop on the European Poker Tour will be Prague, the Prague Poker Festival will be held between December 7 – 17. In case you have missed the final table of the Main Event, you can check it out on PokerStars’ Youtube channel.
