Reece Lewis takes down first WPT National event in London
One of the most exciting months of poker London has ever hosted is almost over, but not before the inaugural World Poker Tour National London ensured that the Aspers Casino in Stratford took centre stage once again. Attracting a modest but talented field of 218 players, the first-time £1,650 event lasted for five days and when everything was said and done it was Reece Lewis who held his nerve and was crwoned champion, collecting a well deserved £80,000 for his efforts.
Heading into the final table, Lewis had the third largest chip stack, but the two out in front were sitting very strong with more chips between them than the other six players combined.
The only woman player remaining at the final table was first to hit rail after her nines ran into the kings of Lewis, who was more than happy to double his stack so early on. Carlo Citrone was unsurprisingly next to go. With his tiny stack all he could really do was hope to get lucky if wanted to have any sort of chance of getting back into the match, unfortunately for him it didn’t happen.
Soon after there was a double elimination which saw Wang Weikang and Rasmus Larsen both knocked out at the hands of Elior Sion. Next up it was Kevin Williams, who lost out to Robin Fisher when his three-bet all in with K-T was called by Fisher who had him dominated with K-J. The river was a ten giving Williams a pair but it also completed the straight for Fisher.
Not long after, Fisher, who was getting a bit short, attempted to pull off a risky all-in squeeze play when he pushed over the top of Sion’s open raise and Lewis’ flat-call. The move almost worked when Sion folded his hand but Lewis was having none of it and after thinking about it for a while he made the questionable call with Ks-7s. Fisher wasn’t in terrible shape though with his Qs-9s and had two live cards. Unluckily though the first four cards didn’t help either player and when the river paired Lewis’ seven it was all over.
Despite his early lead, heading into the heads-up match-up, Sion found himself trailing Lewis by 4-to-1 in chips. And even with his very best efforts, the gap was to prove too big to close and when Sion finally found a hand he was willing to go with he ran into Lewis’ pocket aces and that was the end of that. Lewis was the new champion.
Here is how the final table finished:
1. Reece Lewis – £80,000
2. Elior Sion – £54,150
3. Robin Fisher – £34,000
4. Kevin Williams – £25,000
5. Rasmus Larsen – £19,000
6. Wang Weikang – £15,000
7. Carlo Citrone – £12,500
8. Emma Tolley – £10,000
