Jeremy Routier Wins £2,200 UKIPT High Roller for £249,460
Frenchman Jeremy Routier has won the £2,200 United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour High Roller for £249,460 after defeating online crusher Roman Hrabec in heads-up play at the PokerStars European Poker Tour London at the Hilton Park Lane hotel.
Routier defeated a field of 701 entries to claim his first EPT title. This is the Frenchman's second six figures score and biggest after €100,000 back in 2018 in his native France. After a long and gruelling final table Routier defeated online professional Hrabec heads ups taking advantage of the two-to-one chip lead he had going all in. Hrabec has almost $10,000,000 in online earnings but was unable to secure his first live tournament win.
It was a grueling final day as 105 players returned for Day 2. The tournament featured over 700 entries which generated a prizepool of £1,345,920.
Many notable players returned for Day 2 but many big names fell early including the man of EPT Barcelona Francisco Benitez (89th £3,670) who wouldn't add to his four final tables from the last EPT stop. Other notables who were eliminated were PokerStars TeamPro's Parker Talbot (49th- £4,850) and Alejandro Lococo (28th- £6,400).
Other notable action which commenced before the final table included Leon Sturm (22nd- £8,460) triple barrel bluffing to be eliminated at the hands of Laszlo Molnar who flopped two pair. Gary Miller (11th -£18,540) who also eliminated as he flopped top pair and got it in against Neves's pocket aces. Laszlo Molnar (10th- £18,540) was the final table bubble boy as he shoved ace six from the short stack only to run into Ian Gascoigne's pocket queens to be eliminated.
Winner's Reaction
PokerNews asked Routier about his poker background after his first EPT win. Routier said he is a recreational player who works as a web designer for a french social media network and that he travels to EPT's with his wife and two children on holidays. He also said he plays in a weekly €500 tournament every week in Paris where he lives.
Routier has played the EPT circuit for many years with his first EPT cash being here in London back in 2014 in a £300 buy-in. When asked about notable hands in the tournament Routier pointed to having pocket aces a few times and getting into favourable situations.
£2,200 UKIPT High Roller Final Table Results
| Place | PLAYER | COUNTRY | PRIZE (GBP) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeremy Routier | France | £249,460 |
| 2 | Roman Hrabec | Czech Republic | £155,780 |
| 3 | Pedro Gois Neves | Portugal | £111,270 |
| 4 | Martin Stausholm | Denmark | £85,590 |
| 5 | Martin Hellmuth | United Kingdom | £65,840 |
| 6 | Gabriel Roberts | France | £50,650 |
| 7 | Mateusz Wozniak | Poland | £38,970 |
| 8 | Ian Gascoigne | United Kingdom | £29,980 |
| 9 | Stefan Ianuszewicz | Romania | £23,050 |
Final Table Recap
On the final table many players were equal in stacks which made play slow as the players looked to ladder up. It took over two hours of nine handed play for Stefan Ianuszewicz to be eliminated after losing a flip with pocket tens against Pedro Gois Neves's ace queen. Next to be eliminated was Ian Gascoigne who ran cold on the final table and was eventually eliminated when his deuces couldn't beat Neves's king ten.
Following Gascoigne's elimination Mateusz Wozniak got into a cooler when his pocket queens ran into Jeremy Routier pocket kings to eliminate the Pole from the tournament. Gabriel Roberts quickly follow when he called off with ace eight from a button shove from Roman Hrabec who defeated him with king nine to send him home in sixth place.
The charismatic Martin Hellmuth was next to be the victim of Routier as he called off queen nine from the big blind following a shove from the Frenchman only to be defeated by his ace three. Next Martin Stausholm also fell victim to Routier as his ace ten couldn't beat Routier's king jack suited. The eliminations gave Routier a big chip lead going into three handed play where Hrabec and Neves dueled to not go out in third. However it was Neves who was eliminated at the hands of Routier's king six against the Portuguese's ace jack. Neves had come into the final table with a big chip lead but had to settle for third place.
Routier went into heads-up play with a two-to-one chip lead and was able to close it out to win his first EPT title. Stay tuned to PokerNews for continued covering of the EPT London including the £5,300 EPT London Main Event which continues tomorrow for Day 1b.