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September 26th 2006
EPT crowns first female champion in London
The London leg of the European Poker Tour was the second EPT event in as many weeks, and just like the Barcelona Open, London was a comprehensive sell-out. The EPT, it seems, is enjoying an upsurge in popularity so great that its organisers can barely cope with the demand, and the 400 seats available in The Vic for this event were not nearly enough.
Of course there were certain players that did not need to worry about queuing up to claim their seat; fresh from his surprise participation (and not-so-surprising second place finish) in the Barcelona Open Phil Ivey was back for more European action. This time he was not so successful however, making it to Day Two before busting out on the very first hand of the day when his AK failed to improve against his opponent’s KK. Ivey was not the only star on show, with Barcelona winner Harry Demetriou, Kenna James, Johnny Lodden, Victor Ramdin, Dave Colclough, Isabelle Mercier, David Plastik, Jeffrey Lisandro, Ram Vaswani and Barcelona champion Bjorne-Erik Glenne also catching the eye.
However, despite the number of stars who showed up the field was barely recognisable by the time we reached Day Three, with Vicky Coren perhaps the only well-known person left. Ram Vaswani of the Hendon Mob was particularly unlucky not to join her on the final day after his opponent caught a two-outer on the river to haul in a $320,000 pot; had he won it Ram would have been one of the chip leaders. It’s a cruel game.
Day Three, minus Vaswani, began with twelve players, eight of whom would make the TV table. Despite the especially steep payout (9th place paid £10,000 compared to £110,000 for 4th place) the players did not hang around and Jonas Molander (Vaswani’s conqueror) was knocked out within five minutes of the start. He had failed to add to his stack after winning the aforementioned 320k pot and began the final day as one of the shortstacks; when he moved all-in with Q6 moved he was called by Michael Muldoon’s whose pocket nines held up.
After a few hours Oscar Schweinebank was sent to the rail in 9th, eliminated when his pocket fives failed to hold up against Emad Tahtouh, and the TV 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 cracking start, dealing the first knock-out blow of the final table when her jacks held up against Sid Harris’s pocket nines, but she fell on hard times thereafter. In fact by the time we were down to four players Coren was teetering with a fragile $370k, fully $1.12 million behind chip leader Emad Tahtouh. At this stage it looked for all the world like her tournament would soon be over, but just in the nick of time she got herself all-in with AhTh against the (very slightly) shorter stacked Michael Muldoon; an ace flopped and Muldoon’s pocket sevens were put to the sword.
That win moved Coren from survivor to contender and it now looked as though any of the three remaining players could win it; this was serious business. Not that you would have realised this by watching Coren and her Australian opponent Emad Tahtouh. Whilst Jan Slavik sat in almost monasteric silence, Coren and Tahtouh nattered incessantly, exchanging barbs and smiles like flirting teenagers. Indeed cries of “get a room” were heard from the audience on more than one occasion.
Meanwhile Jan sat and waited for his chance. It came after Jan opened with a preflop raise and called a re-raise from Coren to see a flop of T-T-9. Coren then moved all-in prompting Jan into the think tank where he remained for an eternity, fully five minutes in fact, before the clock was called on him. Even with the clock ticking Jan was in no mood to hurry, and it was not until just three seconds remained that he finally called. It proved an incredibly bold, and incredibly insightful call, as he turned over pocket threes. A sheepish Coren said ‘good call’, revealing a bluff with AJ. With the cards on their backs it was left to the poker Gods to decide if Jan’s excellent play would be rewarded, and they apparently decided it should not. A jack fell immediately on the turn and Jan was out in third, victim to a particularly cruel beat. He received £168,000 ($320,709) for third place.
Down to two and it was over almost before Jan had made it out of the room. On the first hand of heads-up play Tahtouh bet every street on a board of 5-8-T-2-9 but Coren called him all the way and her Q-T took the pot against Tahtouh’s J-8. That pot gave Vicky a commanding 2:1 chip advantage and she it took just one more hand for her to collect the lot. On a flop of 3-4-5 Tahtouh moved all-in with 6-8 only for Coren to call with the nuts (6-7). When no seven came on the turn or river the tournament was over, and the EPT had its first female champion. Coren collected the first prize of £500,000 ($951,073) while Tahtouh took home 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: 26/09/2006 10:56:09
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