Mouawad Mows Down Competition at EPT London
Joseph Mouawad (Credit: Poker Stars Blog)
The European Poker Tour pulled into London 's Victoria Casino . Reigning champ, Victoria Coren, was looking for another victory. She joined a bunch of star-studded bunch of players on Day 1a including Willie “Dice Man” Tann, the Hendon Mob's Barny Boatman, Jeff Lisandro, David “El Blondie” Colclough, Jani Sointula, Liam Flood, David “Devilfish” Ulliott and Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke. On that first day, a total of 178 of the world's best sat down to play with 200 players schedule for Day 1b.
Coren wouldn't make it past the bloodbath of Day 1a. Neither would Katja Thater, Harry Demetriou or Donnacha O'Dea. One of the surprising stories of the day was Chris Moneymaker, the 2003 WSOP Main Event champ. The Poker Stars pro hasn't had a big win since becoming the world champ four years ago. He played some good, solid and aggressive poker. Coming back from a crippling blow delivered by the Dice Man, Moneymaker ousted Devilfish from the competition to survive the day.
Day 1b was just as star-studded as the previous Day One. 215 folks took to the field, driving the total number of entrants up to 392. The prize pool was a tasty £2,038,400, which was to be split amongst the top 32 finishers.
Patrick Antonius, Juha Helppi, Liz Lieu, Daniel Negreanu, Mel Judah and Roland De Wolfe all sat down to play, sometimes sitting at the same table. At one point, Negreanu, Lieu, De Wolfe and Judah wound up together.
Players who didn't survive the day included the Hendon Mob's Joe Beevers and Ram Vaswani, Max Pescatori and Juha Helppi. 90 folks remained at the end of the action.
Day Two saw a total of 142 people at the beginning. Chris Moneymaker was one of the chip leaders along with a Lebanese player by the name of Joseph Mouawad. Mouawad knocked out Daniel Negreanu early on during Day Two with his pocket kings. Antonius, Lieu, Boatman and Lisandro were all eliminated during the day. With only forty players remaining, the action wound up for the night. Surinder Sunar stood atop of the chip heap with 403,400 big ones in his stack, almost double his nearest competitor Ben Grundy.
The first dude to bust out on Day Three was Swedish player Erik Friberg. Friberg first rose to prominence in the 2006 WSOP Main Event, where he finished in eighth place. It took a while to get to the bubble. However, once it burst, the floodgates opened and folks were dropping like flies. Katja Svendsen, the last woman standing, was eliminated by Daniel Mangas in 27 th place. Chris Moneymaker also called the young Norwegian on her final hand.
Chris Moneymaker, Surinder Sunar and Roland De Wolfe wouldn't survive the day. The action ended with only eight remaining. The final day of the EPT London Main Event was a relatively quick one. German player, Florian Langmann, headed into the day with 927,000 chips. Nipping at his heels was Joseph Mouawad, the tournament's eventual winner. Ian Cox was the first one out. He moved all-in from the button with a K,7. Langmann called with a K,3 and made his baby pair on the flop. Paul Mendes, a UK resident, took a stand with K,10 and fell to Anthony Lellouche's A,K. His seventh-place finish was good for £77,459.
Lellouche wouldn't be able to make good on Mendes' elimination. After nearly losing his shirt with a flush draw against Marcel Baran, he hit the rail in sixth place. Fredrik Haugen, the 2006 Caribbean Poker Classic Main Event champ, called Langmann's all-in with an A,J in the pocket. Langmann, holding Q,10, made a set of tens on the turn sending Haugen home without another title. However, the £124,342 he earned for fifth place will help soothe his wounded heart, we're sure.
Soon afterwards, Josh Egan of New Zealand , went all-in against Mouawad's pocket rockets. His K,J came up short and he was out in fourth position. A few hands later, Langmann KO'd Baran to go heads-up with Mouawad.
Mouawad had a slight chip advantage of 2,162,000 to Langmann's 1,880,000. The heads-up match-up lasted about an hour before Mouawad finally dispatched of his opponent.
Here are the final results:
1) Joseph Mouawad - £611,520 2) Florian Langmann - £346,528 3) Marcel Baran - £203,840 4) Josh Egan - £152,880 5) Fredrik Haugen - £124,342 6) Anthony Lellouche - £97,843 7) Paul Mendes - £77,459 8) Ian Cox - £57,075