Welcome back to our ongoing coverage of the 2014 PokerStars.com EPT Season 11 London £4,250 Main Event! The tournament field has been whittled down from 675 entries to the official final table of eight. Sebastian Pauli holds a significant chip lead going into the final table with 6.13 million, more than 3.5 million more than the next closest stack. Pauli's domination on Day 5 has put him in strong contention to join the ranks of EPT Main Event winners.
Pauli and the rest of the final table, however, are joined by two men who have been here before. Team PokerStars Pro and EPT Season 6 Deauville Main Event champion Jake Cody and EPT Season 6 Berlin Main Event champion Kevin MacPhee are both owners of seats at this prestigious final table. Both players have been in this situation before and have experience on their side. If either Cody or MacPhee win the title, they will join the likes of Victoria Coren Mitchell to become the second-ever two-time EPT Main Event champion. MacPhee is set up in solid position, returning to the final table in the third chip position with 2.43 million. Cody, on the other hand, is returning sixth in chips with 2.156 million to his name.
The talk seems to be that these players will be in for a long haul today as they're returning to the felt remarkably deep stacked. Pauli's massive chip lead will see him returning to the felt with 153 big blinds to his name. On the opposite end of the spectrum sits Pablo Gordillo who bagged up just 975,000. While that may not seem like much in comparison, he's still sitting on 24 big blinds with a lot of room for play.
Here's a look at how the final table stacks up:
Seat
Player
Country
Chips
1
[Removed:119]
France
2,340,000
2
Jake Cody
UK
2,156,000
3
Kevin MacPhee
USA
2,430,000
4
Artur Koren
Germany
2,420,000
5
Kevin Killeen
Ireland
2,470,000
6
Pablo Gordillo
Spain
975,000
7
Sebastian Pauli
Germany
6,130,000
8
Jakub Mroczek
Poland
1,325,000
Play kicks off from the Grand Connaught Rooms at 1 p.m. local time where the field will play down to a champion. Coverage on PokerNews will begin at 2 p.m. where we will provide hand-for-hand coverage from the live stream. As always, be sure to stay tuned here for the latest as this prestigious event reaches an exciting conclusion!
23-year-old Polish player Mroczek is an EPT regular whose best result to date was winning a €1k side event at EPT Barcelona last season. He also won a €200 turbo event at this season’s EPT Sanremo and finished second in a €200 rebuy event at the same festival. Mroczek won his seat to EPT London in a live satellite, and was the chip leader going into Day 4.
The 25-year-old from Dortmund won the €1k NL Turbo Bounty at EPT Barcelona in August for €39,905. Pauli, who also finished fourth in the $2,500 Razz event at the World Series last year, has more than $230k in lifetime tournament winnings.
Spanish player Pablo Gordillo is best known for his fourth place finish at EPT Vienna where he picked up a hefty €262,150. More recently the young player has been making a bit of a splash online - one glorious night on PokerStars, he managed to win no fewer than three tournaments. He also came third in a €200 NL side event at Estrellas Madrid in January for € 2,421, and cashed for €12,000 in a Sunday Especial on PokerStars.es.
Kevin Killeen was catapulted to European poker fame when he took down UKIPT Dublin earlier this year for €87,700. He had previously mostly played online as a mid to high stakes tournament specialist – among his biggest cashes was $33,000 in the Sunday Second Chance on PokerStars. Killeen is mostly resident in Dublin, although he spent some time in Mexico following his UKIPT win and hopes to return there in the near future.
A German national currently residing in Vienna, Austria, Artur Koren is a regular on the EPT circuit and the possessor of some excellent results, including a €38,590 score for winning the €2k Six Max at EPT Vienna and third place for €56,850 in the €1k side event at EPT Barcelona. He has over $350,000 in lifetime live tournament cashes. He won his seat on PokerStars.fr.
With almost $3 million in live tournament cashes, poker powerhouse Kevin MacPhee needs no introduction. He has been a permanent fixture on the EPT circuit since winning the first EPT Berlin in Season 6 for a cool €1 million. His other achievements have included several WSOP final tables, eighth place at EPT8 Sanremo, bubbling the final table at EPT7 Prague and winning the EPT8 Deauville Six Max High Roller event. He won his seat to EPT London in a £320 NLHE Deep Hyper-Turbo qualifier at the end of September.
Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody boasts lifetime live tournament winnings of more than $3m. His biggest result to date is still the €847,000 EPT Deauville victory which propelled him into the spotlight back in Season 6. Cody then went on to win WPT London in May the same year and a WSOP bracelet the following summer (the $25k Heads-Up Championship) to give him the coveted Triple Crown. He finished fifth at the EPT9 Grand Final and also has a string of great online results including winning the $2,100 NL SCOOP title in 2011 for $234,738.
Hand #1: [Removed:119] raised under the gun to 85,000 holding and he got a call from Jakub Mroczek in the big blind with . The flop came down and both players checked. On the turn the hit and Mroczek bet 60,000, Bensadoun called.
On the river the hit and Mrozek bet 105,000 and Bensadoun folded giving the first pot to the Polish player.
Hand #2: The action folded to Kevin Killeen who raised to 85,000 from the hijack with and from his left Pablo Gordillo called with . The other players folded to [Removed:119] who called from the big blind with .
The flop came down and Bensadoun checked to Killeen who grabbed chips right away and bet 135,000. Gordillo went into the tank with his flush draw and two over cards and he ultimately raised it up to 350,000 and his two opponents folded very quickly.
Hand #3: The action folded to Jakub Mroczek who raised from he button with to 105,000 and [Removed:119] called from the small blind with . Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody was seated in the big blind with and he went into the tank for a bit before putting in the call as well.
The flop brought out and Bensadoun checked, Cody checked and Mroczek fired out 105,000. Bensadoun folded immediately and Cody put in the call. The turn was the and Mroczek picked up a flush draw with his pair.
Cody checked again on the turn and Mroczek checked behind. On the river the popped up and Cody had the winning hand, and he checked a third time. Mroczek looked back down at his cards and checked behind giving the pot to Cody.
Hand #20: Kevin Killeen raised under the gun plus one to 105,000 with and Kevin MacPhee called in the big blind with . The flop brought out and MacPhee checked to Killeen who bet 130,000. MacPhee folded and Killeen took down this pot.
Hand #21: Kevin MacPhee limped from the small blind and Artur Koren raised to 125,000 from the big blind and he picked up the pot.
Hand #22: [Removed:119] raised all in from the hijack for 520,000 with and he won the pot.
Hand #23: The action folded to Kevin Killeen in the small blind and he raised to 130,000 with . Pablo Gordillo looked down on and moved all in for 1,060,000 and Killeen folded right away.