Michael Martin wins £1m at EPT London

PokerStars EPT London, The Grosvenor Victoria Casino, London, £5,200 No Limit Hold’em, October 1 – October 5th 2008

Entrants: 595
Buyin: £5,200
Prizepool: £3,349,200

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 Strassman, Germany, £120,723
8. Antony Lellouche, France, £81,569

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.

In the final hand, Michael had 44 against Mike’s K9. A four on the turn secured him the coveted EPT champion title.

Michael, 24, a former college hockey player, was 105th on the waiting list to play in the London tournament and very nearly caught a flight home before managing to secure a seat in the sell-out event. 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. He 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.” Michael’s mother Nancy and girlfriend Jen had flown in overnight from the States to rail him at the final table.

A total of 596 players, including 234 PokerStars players, entered the £5,200 buy-in EPT London Open creating a prize pool of £3,349,200.

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, Italian slalom ski champion Alberto Tomba, American WSOP bracelet winner Kathy Liebert, and Brazilian Indy stock car racer Gualter Salles.

John Duthie, Executive Producer of the European Poker Tour, said: “This year’s EPT London has been a phenomenal success with a record amount of players. An amazing standard of players competed at this event for the record £1 million first prize.”