Poker has truly hit Portugal, with the Vilamoura stop of the European Poker Tour taking place this week. It was an exciting week for portuguese poker as this tournament is the largest ever to be held within Portugal, and brings with it the promise of more poker events in the future. It was Toby Lewis who, as the tournament came to a close, proved to be the last man standing and walked away with the first place trophy and prize money.
The young British player has had a relatively short poker career, but has already managed to make his mark. Online he goes by the screen name 810ofclubs, but he’s also starting to make a name for himself as a live tournament player, with in the money finishes in the Prague and Monte Carlo EPT events. This is by far the EPT regular’s biggest win, but he shows a lot of promise and we can be sure to see more of him in the future.
The European Poker Tour is a series of televised poker tournaments, which stops in a number of beautiful cities around Europe. This event was held in the beautiful Vilamoura, Portugal, and boasted a record breaking prize pool coming in at just over €1.8 Million, with first place receiving over €450,000 alone. 384 entrants turned up to battle it out on the tables, and the event lasted five days before Lewis emerged victorious.
Coming into the final tables Lewis had the chip lead, but he was very closely followed by fellow British player Sam Trickett. While it proved to be a lucky day for Lewis, the exact opposite was sadly the case for Trickett. His chips seemed to spend more time in the middle of the table than in front of him as he was involved in seven all-ins, finding himself ahead in all but one. Poker can be a cruel game, and despite getting the chips in with the best of it, he also lost all but one of these seven all-ins, eventually busting from the final table in fourth place.
Jason Lee was then eliminated by runner-up Martin Jacobson, when the two got the chips in as a classic flip, pocket pair versus overcards and Jacobson pulled ahead. Lewis entered heads-up play at a 2:1 chip disadvantage, but it didn’t take him long to pull chip stacks back to even. The two battled it out for a time until the final hand took place. Both players checked on the rainbow AT9 flop, but when an innocent looking 5 hit the turn the chips very quickly went in the middle. Jacobson turned over 95 for two pair but was met with the bad news when he discovered Lewis had a set with 55. The T river was no help to Jacobson, but handed Lewis the tournament win and €467,835 in prize money.
The European Poker Tour continues to host fantastic tournaments in beautiful parts of the world. This time it was Toby Lewis who walked away the victor, but if you’re able to get to one of these events it could very well be you. Even if you’re not the EPT can be enjoyed from your home as you follow the action, so make sure to stay tuned for more updates from the events on the horizon.
The official final table results are as follows:
1st: Toby Lewis €467,835
2nd: Martin Jacobson €297,984
3rd: Jason Lee – €186,240
4th: Sam Trickett – €139,680
5th: Teddy Sheringham – €93,120
6th: Frederik Jensen – €74,496
7th: Rob Hollink – €55,872
8th: Sergio Coutinho – €37,248