Aaron Gustavson Defeats Peter Eastgate in EPT London

As the great wrestler Ric Flair said, “To be the man, you gotta beat the man!” In this week’s finale of the European Poker Tour’s (EPT) London stop, Aaron Gustavson did just that, besting reigning World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate heads-up.

Gustavson, an American who qualified for the event through the popular online poker room PokerStars, took home £850,000 for his efforts. All was not lost for Eastgate, however, as the Dane and member of Team PokerStars Pro earned a £530,000 consolation prize. The two emerged as the survivors of the largest poker tournament ever held in the United Kingdom, weighing in at 730 runners. Gustavson was one of 149 players, or 20% of the field, who qualified online through PokerStars.

In a press release distributed by EPT officials following Gustavson’s monumental win, the champion noted, “I’m speechless, totally overwhelmed. I don’t think it’s going to hit me for a quite a while. Having this title is amazing – a dream come true.” Gustavson’s battle against Eastgate was anything but prolonged, as the defeat took all of seven hands and 15 minutes to deliver. In the final hand, Gustavson’s A-Q held up against Eatsgate’s A-9 when the board ran out 3-5-6-K-J. Eastgate commented, “It’s been an amazing ride. I made it to second place, which is far more than you hope for going into a final table. Big applause for Aaron – he deserved it. I’m pleased I made it to heads-up.”

Nikolai Senninger hit the skids in third place after calling all-in for his tournament life against Gustavson on a board of 3-7-Q-9 with two hearts. Senniger showed pocket eights, while Gustavson flipped up Q-10 for top pair. The river came a 10, improving Gustavson to two pair and eliminating Senniger in third place, £285,000 richer for his wear. Taking fourth was Martin Gudvangen, who fell by the wayside with A-3 against Senniger’s A-Q. The best hand held and Gudvangen walked away from the EPT London Main Event with £227,000.

Dominic Cullen was sent packing in fifth place, earning £173,000. Cullen pushed pre-flop holding A-10, but ran into Gustavson’s pocket eights. The two were off to the races, with an eight spiking the flop to propel Gustavson to the win in the hand. Cullen edged out Rui Milhomens, who took sixth place for £124,000. Milhomens found himself all-in holding pocket eights against Eastgate’s A-10. This time, a 10 hit the river to send the player with the wired pair to the rails.

Gustavson sent Raymond Wu to the London night in seventh place for £87,000, a healthy return on his £5,000 buy-in. A short-stacked Wu pushed with Q-10, but Gustavson made the call from the big blind for a discount with K-6. The flop came king-high, keeping Gustavson in the lead in the hand for good. Karim Benanni finished in eighth place after running K-3 into Milhomens’ K-10.

The final table was played eight-handed and appeared live on PokerStars.tv from the Hilton Metropole. Here were the final results from the 2009 EPT London Main Event:

1. Aaron Gustavson (United States) - 850,000
2. Peter Eastgate (Denmark) - 530,000
3. Nikolai Senninger (Germany) - 285,000
4. Martin Gudvangen (Norway) - 227,000
5. Dominic Cullen (United Kingdom) - 173,000
6. Rui Milhomens (Portugal) - 124,000
7. Raymond Wu (Taipei) - 87,000
8. Karim Bennani Smires (France/Morocco) - 50,100

Next up for the EPT is Warsaw. The event takes place from October 20th to 25th at Casinos Poland and boasts a 25,000 PLN buy-in, the equivalent of $8,700 at current exchange rates. Last year, Portuguese poker player Joao Barbosa celebrated his 26th birthday in style by winning the EPT Warsaw event.

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Poker dictionary:

LATE BLIND - In addition to "regular" blinds, some games allow a player (particularly a new one) to post a blind bet in return for the right to enter the game immediately and act last on the first betting round. The amount of the blind is determined by house rules, usually somewhere between the last blind and double the last blind. It is frequently a LIVE BLIND.
TOP TWO PAIR - In flop games, having hole cards that make the highest possible two pair hand.
LOWBALL - Generic term for poker where the lowest hand wins.
SEVENTH STREET - The seventh card dealt in 7-card stud.
RACE - In tournaments it is sometimes convenient to remove all lower-denomination chips from play, as the remaining players' stacks tend to grow. Small chips are converted to larger chips and any odd chips are "raced off" in the following way: each player with odd chips places them in front of his stack and is dealt one card for each chip. Highest card (rank and suit) takes all the small chips and converts them to higher-denomination chips.
ON TILT - Playing worse (usually, more aggressively) than usual because a player has become emotionally upset.

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