Akenhead Wins Poker Million

1. James Akenhead, $500,000
2. Juha Helppi, $250,000
3. Dag Martin Mikkelsen, $200,000
4. Luke Schwartz, $150,000
5. Craig Wakeham, $100,000
6. Peter Vasilou, $75,000
7. Taylor Caby, $50,000

After a fairytale 2009 where he made the final tables of the WSOPE and WSOP Main Events, UK pro James Akenhead has finally got his hands on a major trophy by winning the Full Tilt Poker Million VIII for $500,000.

After he had finished 9th in both the WSOP and WSOPE finals, Akenhead was understandably ecstatic to win such a prestigious event, ‘I’ve made lots of final tables but not come first so to win such an event as big as Poker Million is just fantastic. I think I played really well tonight. I trusted my instincts and my reads and I didn’t make many mistakes throughout the whole tournament.’

It wasn’t an easy ride for Akenhead in Saturday’s live final though as he lost a big pot early on to Luke ‘_FullFlush1_’ Schwartz that knocked him back to one of the short stacks. However, Akenhead got the luck he deserved later on, hitting a flush with As-7s versus Schwartz’s 8-8 that set him on the road to a heads-up battle with the experienced Juha Helppi.

With the blinds high, heads-up didn’t last too long and in the end it was a preflop skirmish that eventually saw Akenhead crowned champion; Helppi pushing with 6-6 and getting snap-called by Akenhead’s dominating T-T which held up to take the title.

When PokerPlayer.co.uk spoke to Helppi last week he was the shortest stack at the table and very aware that he could be the first player eliminated. He was suitably happy with his runner-up finish, ‘I was lucky to get heads-up up because I had to win a few flips as one of the short-stacks. Before the start I was thinking that second would be good considering what I was starting with but also I knew I would be disappointed if I got heads-up and didn’t win. I am pretty happy with the way I played; I don’t think I made any mistakes. I could have reraised a bit more heads-up but I would have been bluffing as I didn’t really have any good hands.’

New champion James Akenhead joins a formidable list of former Poker Million champions that includes Joe Beevers, Marty Smyth, Jimmy White and the inaugural winner John Duthie. After his incredible success in 2009 nobody can deny that Akenhead fully deserves his Poker Million success and the poker world has been put on full alert with his comments that, ‘I’m really looking forward to next year and all the events I’m going to play. Every year that I’ve played since I started I’ve won more than the previous year so I’ve got a big hill to climb next year!’