British PokerStars player Toby Lewis has won €467,836 after triumphing at the €5,350 PokerStars EPT Vilamoura Main Event. The total prize pool was €1,862,400 making it the biggest poker tournament ever held in Portugal.
The 20-year-old from Southampton beat Swedish PokerStars qualifier Martin Jacobson, 23, heads-up to claim the title. Lewis has played several EPTs and cashed in Prague and the Grand Final last season. In July, he final tabled the PokerStars IPT event in Venice, finishing seventh for €25,000. He also came 12th at the recent PokerStars Russian Poker Series event in Riga for a further €5,250.
Lewis was enthusiastically railed throughout the eight-hour final by a huge group of friends including Team PokerStars Pro JP Kelly and Daniel Negreanu, as well as six friends he flew out from England. He said: “I’m pretty happy at the moment. This title means a lot to me. I was disappointed not to win IPT Venice but this means even more. It wasn’t easy – Martin was a very hard player to beat.”
As part of his prize, Lewis also wins a €10,000 seat to the Season 7 EPT Grand Final in Spring 2011 and gets 800 points towards becoming EPT Season 7 Player of the Year. He was up against tough competition – a star-studded 384-strong field, and a final which included former EPT champion Rob Hollink, England football legend Teddy Sheringham, Aussie Millions runner-up Frederik Jensen, American online pro Jason Lee and Sam Trickett, who was runner-up in the WSOP $5,000 NLHE side event.
Jacobson, who takes home €297,985 for second place, already has a string of great results including third place at EPT Budapest two years ago for €198,000. Friend of PokerStars Sheringham finished fifth for €93,121, while Hollink. 48, bust in seventh place for €55,872. The total prize pool was €1,862,400.
Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano achieved a record-breaking 16th cash in the EPT Vilamoura Main Event. He busted in 52nd place for €7,263. Other Team PokerStars Pros who made the money included JP Kelly (29th, €9,312), Marcin Horecki (35th, €8,381), Portugal’s Nuno Coelho (54th, €7,263) as well as Andre Coimbra, a Portuguese member of PokerStars Online (49th, €7,263). New Team Pro David Williams made his debut as a PokerStars player in Vilamoura but failed to cash.
The €10,000 NLHE event was won by Italian Raffaele Gerbi for €100,880. Lithuanian Kristijonas Andrulis came second for €54,320. There were 16 entrants including Team PokerStars Pro Dario Minieri, William Thorson and Sorel Mizzi creating a total prize pool of €155,200.
The Fairways and Felts challenge, a unique €1,100 two-day golf and poker contest, was won by Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu for €8,253. It was Negreanu’s first ever EPT cash. Fellow Team PokerStars Pro Pieter de Korver was runner-up for €4,444.
