.gif&contenttype=gif "Titan Poker $500 Bonus")
Michael Martin wins EPT London
October 07, 2008 - Thomas Clarke
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October 1st – 5th
Buy-in - £5,200
Entrants - 596
Prize pool - £3,349,200
American Michael Martin has won the fifth PokerStars.com European Poker Tour London Open – and a record £1,000,000 first prize.
Michael was down to just 95,000 in chips when a series of incredible hands resulted in a miracle comeback in less than ten minutes. He then knocked out American pro Eric Liu in fourth place and Team PokerStars Pro Marcin Horecki in third place to go heads-up against Swedish PokerStars qualifier Mike Tureniec.
The final hand happened with Martin on $4.56 million and Tureniec on $1.3 million. Tureniec pushed all-in with K 9 and got the call from Martin and his 4 4.The board ran out 6 3 2 4 2 and Martin sealed the victory.
His stunning victory follows his fifth-place finish at last season's EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo and second place in the Amsterdam Master Classics last year.
Martin said: "It has been surreal. I had less than two big blinds and then, just three hands later, I was on 1.4 million. But I just knew I was going to do something here and having my family watching made me even more determined."
Among those who competed were German tennis legend and PokerStars ambassador Boris Becker, as well as 22 Team PokerStars Pros including World Champions Joe Hachem, Greg Raymer and Chris Moneymaker, PCA champion Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Season 3 EPT London winner Vicky Coren .
Also sponsored into the event were four of the PokerStars.com Million Dollar Men – the WSOP finalists Ylon Schwartz, Peter Eastgate, Darus Suharto and David "Chino" Rheem as well as EPT5 Barcelona champion Sebastian Ruthenberg and American WSOP bracelet winner Kathy Liebert.
Name Country £
1 Michael Martin USA 1,000,000
2 Mike Tureniec Sweden 525,314
3 Marcin Horecki Poland 303,439
4 Eric Liu USA 234,920
5 Philippe D'Auteuil Canada 195,766
6 Alan Smurfit Ireland 153,351
7 Johannes Strassmann Germany 120,723
8 Antony Lellouche France 81,569
The next stop on the PokerStars European Poker Tour is the £4,350 buy-in Budapest event from October 28 – November 1 at the Las Vegas Casino, Sofitel Hotel which will be the first EPT Open in Hungary.
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