Sometimes stories just work out perfectly, which is exactly what happened at the final table of the PokerStars European Poker Tour on Saturday when Tom “hitthehole” Middleton captured his first major poker tournament title.

Yesterday we teased Middleton as a budding poker superstar in the run-up to the final table, and with EPT trophy and over $1,000,000 in hand Middleton is now well on his way to living up to the lofty expectations we placed on him. I’ll also take this time to point out that I chose Middleton as one of my Ten Poker Players to Watch in 2013 –I also have Vladimir Geshkenbein on this list and while he ended up being quite famous this year, it was for all the wrong reasons.

Ok, let’s now get back to Middleton’s performance at the EPT Barcelona.

Middleton was absolutely dominant over the final few days of the EPT Barcelona Main Event, taking the overnight chip-lead into Day’s 3, 4, and 5. Middleton’s final table to the winner’s circle was far from smooth, but in poker is not how you get the chips, just that you get them, and when the dust settled Middleton had every single chip in play in front of him.

Middleton’s victory extends the UK’s all-time EPT title count record, which now stands at 14, as the small nation has proven to be a hotbed of talented poker players.

Talk of a deal came up during four-handed play but with the players unable to come to agreeable terms the tournament ended up being played with the original prize-structure in place until a later deal was struck between Middleton and his heads-up opponent Kimmo Kurko. Here is how the final table payouts worked out:

1. Tom Middleton – €942,000

2. Kimmo Kurko – €750,000

3. Kresten Nielsen – €440,500

4. Luca Fiorini – €328,000

5. Pasi Sormunen – €253,000

6. Benoit Gury – €188,000

7. Eduard Bhaggoe – €143,000

8. Andreas Christoforou – €102,430

Next up for the PokerStars EPT –which is celebrating its historic 10th Season–, will be a trip to London for what should be a spectacular tournament series, although the EPT Barcelona series will not be an easy one to exceed. Barcelona saw a massive turnout for the Main Event (1,236 players) that fell just four players shy of the all-time EPT record, not to mention a record-setting preliminary tournament, as the Estrellas Poker Tour Main Event set the all-time PokerStars live tournament attendance record in Europe.

For more information on the upcoming London series or other EPT Season 10 stops you can visit www.europeanpokertour.com

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 8th, 2013 at 8:40 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.