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September 25th 2006
EPT crowns first female champion in London
Like the Barcelona Open just days before it, the London leg of the European Poker Tour was a comprehensive sell-out with the 400 available seats snapped up in record time. Starting on Thursday (21st Sep) the London Open had many other things in common with its Barcelona counterpart, not least the number of stars who turned out for the event.
Fresh from his surprise participation (and not-so-surprising second place finish) in the last EPT event Phil Ivey was back for more European action in the Vic, making it to Day Two before busting out on the very first hand played, when his AK failed to improve against his opponent’s KK. Also catching the eye on Day One were Barcelona winner Bjorne-Erik Glenne, Harry Demetriou, Kenna James, Johnny Lodden, Victor Ramdin, Dave Colclough, Isabelle Mercier, David Plastik, Jeffrey Lisandro, Ram Vaswani and many more.
Despite the number of stars who started, very few made it to Day Three. Ram Vaswani was unlucky not to make it, falling when his opponent caught a two-outer on the river to haul in a $320,000 pot that would have put Ram in the top four chip counts. Still, that’s poker.
Day Three began with twelve players, eight of whom would make the TV table. Despite the incredibly steep payout (with 6th place earning over four times as much as ninth) the players did not hang around, with the various shortstacks forced to make moves. Indeed Jonas Molander was knocked out within five minutes of the start when he moved in with Q6 and was beaten by Michael Muldoon’s pocket nines.
Eventually the final table was set, featuring mostly Europeans and one women, the famous T.V. presenter, writer and poker player Vicky Coren. Coren got off to a great start, knocking out the first player from the TV table when her jacks held up against Sid Harris’s pocket nines, but fell on tough times after that.
With four players left Coren was down to a perilous $370 k, fully $1.12 million behind the chip leader Emad Tahtouh and her tournament was hanging by a thread. However just in the nick of time she got herself all-in with AT hearts against the (very slightly) shorter stacked Michael Muldoon and an ace on the flop was enough to conquer Muldoon’s pocket sevens.
That win put Coren’s chip stack in a much healthier state, and with three left it was all to play for. You wouldn’t have known it though by the demeanour of Coren and her Australian opponent Emad Tahtouh. For while Jan Slavik sat in monasteric silence, Coren and Tahtouh chatted incessantly, trading barbs and smiles like flirting teenagers. Indeed cries of “get a room” from the audience were audible on more than one occasion.
Meanwhile Jan sat in total silence, waiting for his chance. It came when Jan opened with a raise before the flop and was re-raised by Coren. Jan called to see a flop of T-T-9 upon which Coren moved all-in. Jan deliberated the raise for an eternity, fully five minutes in fact, before the clock was called on him. Even then Jan was in no mood to hurry, and it was not until just three seconds remained on the clock that he finally called. It proved incredibly bold, as he turned over pocket threes, but a sheepish Coren said ‘good call’, revealing a bluff with AJ. Time for the poker gods to get involved however, producing a jack on the turn to administer an especially cruel beat to Jan after he had made such a great call. He received £168,000 ($320,709) for third place.
Down to two and it was over before Jan had made it out of the door. On the first hand of heads-up Tahtouh bet every street on a board of 5-8-T-2-9 with J-8 but was called all the way by Coren with QT for top pair. That pot gave Vicky a 2-1 chip advantage and she finished the job on the very next hand. On a flop of 3-4-5 Tahtouh moved all-in with 6-8 only to be called by Coren who had flopped the nuts with 6-7. When no seven came on the turn or river the tournament was over, and the EPT had crowned its first female champion in Vicky Coren. She collected the first prize of £500,000 ($951,073) while Tahtouh had to settle for the £285,900 ($543,790) second place payout.
Below are the final table finishers and their prize money:
Vicky Coren - £500,000
Emad Tahtouh - £285,900
Jan Slavik - £168,600
Michael Muldoon - £110,000
Chad Brown - £58,600
Jules Kuusik - £44,000
Peter Hedlund - £36,600
Sid Harris - £29,300
Submitted: 25/09/2006 11:57:24
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