Not only is London coming back down to Earth after an exciting St Patrick’s Day weekend, the climax of the EPT London event has left many people needing to take some time to calm down. Having so many poker events in a short space of time is a thrilling time for poker players but once the action has stopped and the adrenaline has left your body, it is only natural that you will feel a bit worn down. While the players take a much needed break and the EPT event starts to think about hitting Berlin next month, why not have a look at some of the other winners from some of the big tournaments during the EPT event.
There was a British winner in the High Roller event with Talal Shakerchi coming home in first place. He went into the final day as the chip leader but as we all know, that can count for very little. However, Shakerchi is on a great run of form at the moment. He had a final table finish in the Super High Roller event from Barcelona earlier in the campaign and he had a triumph in grand final of the previous EPT season. The £436,330 prize was gratefully accepted and Talal now has over $1.5m in overall earnings from tournaments which is not a bad return at all. The action from the High Roller table was being shared across the country thanks to the involvement of media star and professional poker player, Victoria Coren. In the end, Victoria finished in sixth place, earning more than £67,000 for her involvement in the High Roller event.
A good few UK players had great times in London
Another UK success came with Gioi Train winning the No Limit Hold Em (NLHE) Spring Turbo Event and taking home £6,700 for his efforts. Of the final 9 players, 6 hailed from the UK so this was a poker event where home players had a lot to enjoy. There wasn’t a lot of money on offer but Philip Lee, Jean Issa, Andrew Richards, Hylton Goss and David Garvin got to make some money and take some adulation for some fine poker.
Bigger money was on offer at the NLHE Turbo event and this time, there was only one UK player in the top 8, with Adnan Charnaa coming home in third place, receiving £15,460. The top prize of £42,100 was clinched by Portuguese poker player Joao Viera while Sergio Aido from Spain came in second, clinching £26,460. It won’t be long until the next poker action and excitement starts to build but for now, a lot of players can look back on some time well spent in London.
Ladbrokes may be one of the most popular names when it comes to British bookmakers but the company provides a whole wealth of online gaming opportunities. You may first have come across Ladbrokes through their bright red stores on the High Street in your local city or town but nowadays, people are more used to logging on to their Ladbrokes account and enjoying some gaming fun without leaving the house. Poker has been at the heart of the online gaming entertainment provided by Ladbrokes but the company has announced that there will be 
Hearing that Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor was victorious is nothing new, he has been winning darts tournaments for more times than he would care to remember. The 16 time world champion knows what it takes to be a winner and even in a friendly event, he doesn’t want to come second best to anyone. This is especially the case when he is up against a fierce rival like Raymond van Barneveld who he has a lot of history with. The special night took place at the Bradford Gala Casino in Vicar Lane and while darts was high on the agenda, there was also a poker element to the evening too.
Also on the bill for the evening was a darts match between legend Eric Bristow and Andy Fordham, with Fordham clinching a 6-2 victory.
Day Six of EPT9 London started with only a fraction of the original players left in the main event, but the excitement and nervousness could be felt in every corner of the place. Everyone wanted to know who would win; some were hanging out waiting to see results, and others had a lot to lose. In the end, Ruben Visser won the Race to London title, along with a sweet £595,000, but getting there was no simple task.
It has been a fantastic festive of poker in London in the past week or so and while it may seem that the focus now falls on the Irish and Guinness drinkers to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, there will be plenty of big poker players celebrating a brilliant time in London. There was an awful lot of money up for grabs over the course of the different events and tournaments and of course, there was an awful lot of praise and adulation being bestowed upon the big tournament winners.
Other finishers include the German Christopher Frank who earned £112,000 for his sixth placed finish. In fifth place was Steve O’Dwyer and the American earned £146,000. In fourth place was the Dane Theo Jorgensen who received £183,000 and in third was Sweden’s Olof Haglund, who picked up £427,564. The unlucky runner up was Mantas Visockis from Lithuania who received £377,463 for his valiant efforts.
One of the big draws about online poker is that it can help you to be someone that you are really not. There is no doubt that a lot of people love the fact that they can put on a persona or use an avatar when playing online poker to give them a certain edge or change their feelings about themselves when they player. Playing online poker can require people to be more aggressive or confident than they usually are in their everyday life and there is no doubt that the anonymous element of playing poker online helps people to become the poker player that they want to be.
There are some poker players that focus purely on one poker discipline and this is a very sensible strategy. After all, if you have been blessed with a special talent and then you work hard to improve and maintain your talents, why shouldn’t you make the most of it. However, with so many different poker games and disciplines, some players aer keen to develop their skills across the board. This can be for fun, it can be done to get one over on your friends or if you are Ville Wahlbeck, you can improve your varied poker skills to give you a better chance of winning big money.
As if followers and players hadn’t seen enough excitement in EPT9 London, Friday night saw Jan Bendik strengthening his hold on the EPT leader board. He’s been a regular player throughout the tour and many said that he was establishing a stronger hold on the Slovakian top spot, but his 1st on Friday night at the £1,100 “Win the Button Event” has him looking out from the front even more. This lead might come as no surprise to some, but others weren’t expecting this turn of events at all.
He went on to beat 112 players to win the first prize of £436,330. It was his third tournament win, and his largest. With such a busy day job, Shakerchi still plans to play, but admits he won’t have a lot of time to sink into tournaments. He still plans to keep playing – and winning. The last half hour of the game seemed almost too easy for him; a flush against Quoss’ pair and then queens to beat Jaka’s ace-queen heads up gave the game a nice, clean finish.
As the almighty Pulp sang back in the early to mid-1990s, “Do you remember the first time?” and this is certainly a question that people love to answer. There is often nothing like the exhilarating rush of adrenaline and happiness when you do something for the first time and you can bet that Griffin Benger will be feeling very happy with himself this week. This is down to the fact that the triumph during Event Number 13 at the EPT9 London was the first time that Griffin Benger ever managed to win a major live poker tournament.
Women have to stick together these days, especially when they are taking part in a male dominated environment. There are still plenty of men that stick to an old school belief that women have no business playing poker in the major tournaments but thankfully these opinions are dying down. They are still around but the outspoken and outdated opinions are becoming quieter as the weeks, months and years pass. The only thing that a poker player should be judged on is their talent but that is not quite the world we live in!