When it comes to delivering a perfect poker finish, you should be able to rely on a Finnish person and that was definitely the case for Event #11 at the EPT9 London event. There was a buy-in of £2,100 for the event but given that there was as total prize pool of £114,460, there was certainly a lot for the 59 players to get excited about. The top 8 players all got a fine return for the involvement in the event but it was Lauri Pesonen that triumphed.
Pesonen was up against Joao Barbosa, the EPT champion and both players came away from the table with a lot to celebrate. Not only does Pesonen get to class himself as a champion, he picked up £40,060 or his triumph. Barbosa in second place only walked away with £25,190 but that was enough to push his live tournament earnings up to the massive total of $1,426,238. That is the sort of poker money that will make anyone feel proud of themselves but more importantly than that, Barbosa has now moved into second place with respect to the all-time earnings of Portuguese poker players.
Big money on offer for all poker players
A Bulgarian player finished third with Vladimir Velikov claiming £14,880 with US player Scott Seiver bagging over £10,000 for his efforts. That little amount of money may be minute compared to the $2m plus prize that Seiver bagged after taking the PCA 2013 Super High Roller prize. You expect a big prize to be on offer when you are involved with a high roller event but becoming an overnight millionaire is definitely the dream when it comes to playing poker.
The other finishes in the top with went to Marc-Andrew Ladouceur from Canada, who took home a prize of just over £8,000. In sixth place was Sam Greenwood from Canada who claimed £5,720. In seventh place was the Kuwaiti poker player Salman Behbehani who received just over £5,000 for his efforts. There was UK representation in 8th place as Roberto Romanello claimed £4,580.
The Main Events of these poker tournaments will inevitably grab the headlines and provide the highlights but reputations can be earned and developed in the minor events too. Lauri Pesonen will definitely look back on his time in London as being well spent, even if he never got around to seeing all the major tourist attractions that Finnish people look to see when in the English capital.