PokerStars.com EPT London £1m Showdown

£20,000 High Roller Event
Day: 2
Event Info

PokerStars.com EPT London £1m Showdown

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
qk
Prize
£516,000
Event Info
Buy-in
£20,000
Entries
85
Level Info
Level
19
Blinds
10,000 / 20,000
Ante
2,000

Scotty Nguyen Doubles Through David Benyamine

Will he Nguyen... baby?
Will he Nguyen... baby?
Within the first few hands of play, Scotty Nguyen doubled through courtesy of David Benyamine. With the action folded around to Benyamine in the small blind, the Frenchman pushed all in and put his neighbour to the test. Nguyen, in the big blind, declared, "I'm about 80% to call you," before indeed making the call.

Benyamine = {A-Clubs}{7-Clubs}
Nguyen = {A-Diamonds}{9-Hearts}
Board = {9-Diamonds}{5-Spades}{5-Clubs}{10-Spades}{2-Spades}

Nguyen now on 131,000 whilst Benyamine drops to 101,000.

Tags: David BenyamineScotty Nguyen

Isabelle in No Hurry

John Juanda raises it up, and takes the blinds, including the big blind of short stack Isabelle Mercier. Mercier is, incidentally, resplendent in the famous Minieri scarf for good luck. Dario was giving her some words of encouragement in the smoking area during the break as well...

Tags: Isabelle MercierJohn Juanda

Final Table Bios - John Juanda

John Juanda
John Juanda
Seat 9: John Juanda, 37, Las Vegas - 302,000 chips

John is another phenomenal tournament player at today’s final table with four WSOP bracelets to his name, including the 2008 WSOP Europe main event title which he won last week for $1.5 million. His victory came at the end of a record-breaking final table which lasted more than 19 hours. John has won three “Best All Around Player” awards and, so far, his total tournament winnings amount to over $8 million.

Tags: John Juanda

Final Table Bios - Masaaki Kagawa

Masaaki Kagawa
Masaaki Kagawa
Seat 8: Masaaki Kagawa, 45, Japan – 142,000

Masaaki Kagawa is a high-stakes poker player from Japan who has played at several EPTs to date. As poker is still in its early days in Japan, Masa plays mainly in South Korea where there is a bigger market. He is a member of the Japanese Players Union which hosts lots of freeroll poker tournaments, He cashed at EPT3 Dortmund - 32nd place for €6,950; his live earnings to date amount to $267,031.

Tags: Masaaki Kagawa

Final Table Bios - Jason Mercier

Jason Mercier
Jason Mercier
Seat 7: Jason Mercier, 21, Florida, USA - 204,000 chips

Jason first came to attention at the PokerStars.com EPT Season 4 event in San Remo in April. It was only his second live event (he’d qualified online with PokerStars) but – despite facing one of the toughest final tables in EPT history - he secured a stunning victory worth €869,000. His opposition included Team PokerStars Pro Dario Minieri, William Thorson and Eric Koskas. He followed this up with three WSOP cashes in the summer, then three weeks ago he came sixth at EPT Barcelona for €227,800 . Last week he took eight place at the WSOP Europe Pot Limit Omaha event for another £26,800. Outside of poker, Jason – who had studied to be a maths teacher before discovering online poker - is a huge basketball fan.

Tags: Jason Mercier

Final Table Bios - Scotty Nguyen

Scotty Nguyen, baby
Scotty Nguyen, baby
Seat 6: Scotty Nguyen, 45, Las Vegas, USA - 68,000 chips

Scotty is arguably the biggest tournament player in the field having earned a total of $9.7 million in live tournaments winnings. He has five WSOP Bracelets including the 1998 main event and the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E this year. In 2006 he won a WPT title in Tunica for $969,000 becoming one of only five people to win both the main event of the World Series of Poker and a WPT title. Originally from Vietnam, Scotty moved to the States when he was 13 with his family.

Tags: Scotty Nguyen