Toby Lewis Wins PokerStars EPT Vilamoura

UK poker player Toby Lewis walked away from Vilamoura with a smile on his face having pocketed €467,000 for winning the PokerStars EPT Vilamoura after a tough final table which saw the lead swing back and forth. Twenty year old Lewis from Southampton picked up the biggest live win of his career to mark a superb 2010 for the young player.

For Lewis this was a first major title despite previous success on the European Poker Tour. He has had two cashes on the EPT and also secured a Final Table on the Italian Poker Tour. In his short career Lewis has already won $766,237 with $662,246 coming in 2010 from just seven cashes. Lewis was not the biggest English name at the table with former footballer Teddy Sheringham in attendance and World Series of Poker runner up Sam Trickett.

Trickett entered the final day with just 4,000 chips less than chip leader Lewis but found a series of hands that pushed the Nottingham based player out in fourth place:

• A-8 loses to K-7 all-in preflop
• J-J loses to Q-Q all-in preflop
• Q-Q loses to K-K on a board of 8-9-10-A-7
• 10-5 loses to 4-4 on a board of 10-10-4-9-K
• J-J loses to Q-J all-in preflop
• A-K loses to A-2 all-in preflop
• Elimination hand: 2-2 lost to Q-J all-in preflop

Lewis on the other hand was able to stay out of trouble but his passivity had cost him the chip lead by the time it came to heads up. Martin Jacobsen knocked out Jason Lee in third place to take a 2:1 chip lead into heads up. Lewis chipped back up in 20 minutes and from there the result was rarely in doubt. Jacobsen rallied once to make the match last a little longer but it was all over when Jacobsen turned two pair to a set of Lewis and all the chips went in. Lewis avoided a two outer on the river and walked away with the near half a million Euros.

Lewis has confirmed he will be heading back to England for the next series of tournaments that will be taking place including the English Poker Open, World Series of Poker Europe and of course the PokerStars EPT London.

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