I always felt as though the first hand of a final table will set the tone for the remainder of the tournament. It was sort of refreshing to see an all in on the first hand. We love juiced action. Especially at the final table. It makes for great televised entertainment.
After Philippe D'Auteuil doubled up, his mates on the rail began chanting and cheering. Although it's a dreary rainy Sunday afternoon n London, the poker room in the Vic has a definite festive atmosphere.
Philippe D'Auteuil raised to 80,000 from the small blind, Antony Lellouche moved all in from the big blind, and D'Auteuil insta-called
D'Auteuil
Lellouche
The flop came down , Lellouche's fours still in the lead. The on the turn opened up a flush draw for D'Auteuil, and the on the river filled it. D'Auteuil took down the pot with a fist pump and doubled up to 896,000. Lellouche fell to 525,000.
Welcome back to the Grosvenor Victoria Casino for the final table of the 2008 PokerStars.com EPT London £5,200 main event championship. Action will begin at 1:30pm local time.
Michael Tureniec (Sweden) holds a slight edge over Eric Liu (USA) for the overall chiplead.
Here's the final table...
Seat 1: Eric Liu - 1,308,000
Seat 2: Johannes Strassmann - 434,000
Seat 3: Philippe D'Auteuil - 478,000
Seat 4: Antony Lellouche - 1,021,000
Seat 5: Michael Tureniec - 1,333,000
Seat 6: Alan Smurfit - 396,000
Seat 7: Marcin Horecki - 309,000
Seat 8: Michael Martin - 728,000
Seat 1: Eric Liu, 23, Maryland, USA – 1,308,000 chips
Eric Liu cashed at the PCA in January in his first live tournament, then followed up with 17th at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo. But he still wasn't happy with his game so went to Vegas in the summer to play a lot of the smaller buy-in tournaments and the main event, hoping to bring his live game up to the standards he reaches online, where he plays high-stakes cash. "Players like Daniel Negreanu can read a lot off me, so I'm trying to get some more experience playing live," he said. He picked up a couple of cashes in Vegas and is thinking of moving there soon, from his most recent base in San Francisco. Eric took up poker after watching a televised poker tournament and, after just a few months, turned a $200 deposit into $34,000. A former Starcraft and Counterstrike player, Eric is also an instructor at CardRunners.com.
Seat 2: Johannes Strassmann, 23, Bonn, Germany – Shooting Stars sponsored player – 434,000 chips
Johannes, one of the PokerStars.de ShootingStars team of sponsored players, had an extremely precarious Day 3 – he was close to busting several times and very nearly bubbled the final table – which would have been the third time he had gone out of an EPT in 9th place. He has had four EPT cashes so far – his biggest win being €152,000 for 6th place at EPT4 Dortmund. Now living in Berlin, Johannes mainly plays heads-up cash games but also plays Fixed Limit and NL Hold´em or PLO. As well as poker, he also enjoys basketball, running and strength training (gym). He has been playing poker since 2006.
Bio courtesy of Mad Harper from PokerStars.com.
Seat 3: Philippe Dauteuil, 21, Quebec, Canada – 478,000 chips
Philippe is playing in only his second live event but is an experienced online player who specialises in high stakes cash games. His other live event was EPT Barcelona in Season 4 but he busted on Day 1. He took up poker four years ago after watching the game on TV. He studied statistics at college but dropped out after two years to devote himself to poker. Asked who he thinks the best players at the final table are, he replied: “Eric Liu – and me.” If he wins, he plans to use some of the money to bail out a friend who is in prison in Canada.
Bio courtesy of Mad Harper from PokerStars.com.