Toby Lewis EPT Vilamoura survived to win his first major live poker tournament.

Three British poker players came in ahead of five other Europeans at the EPT Vilamoura final table, and the young man who started the day with the advantage ended up walking away the winner.

Teddy Sheringham started the day in third place and mostly played a tight game while the rest of the table duked it out with his fellow Brit Sam Trickett. The former England international soccer star did manage one knockout when his 5-5 held up against A-J to send Frederick Jensen out in sixth place. But he finished the day in fifth place when he flopped top pair with K-Q only to see that Martin Jacobson’s Q-J had flopped a straight, earning him €93,120 ($119,454).

Sam Trickett came in essentially tied for the chip lead, and his active stance at the table made it clear that he wouldn’t be satisfied with anything less than going for it all. The former pro soccer player stayed aggressive throughout the day but the deck conspired against him the entire time; he lost with A-8 to K-7, J-J to Q-Q, A-3 to K-J, A-K to A-2, and with T-5 on a T-T-4 board when his opponent held 4-4. The sheer size of his starting stack helped to buffer him against some of those losses, but in the end a massive coin flip with deuces against Martin Jacobson’s Q-J was the last thing that would go wrong for Trickett. A jack on the flop secured a fourth-place exit, and €139,680 ($179,181), for him.

The last British player at the table was none other than incoming chip leader and online poker star Toby “810ofclubs” Lewis. He entered heads-up play at a 3-to-2 chip disadvantage against Jacobson but he had turned that to a 3-to-2 lead by the time the players reached their first break, extending it even further before Jacobson won with 7-7 to Lewis’ A-8 to nearly even things back up. But Lewis held onto the lead long enough to find himself in a perfect situation, turning a disguised set of fives that gave Jacobson two pair and getting him to five-bet all-in drawing to just two outs. Neither of those outs came on the river, and Lewis became the second consecutive online player to win an EPT event.

Jacobson settled for €297,984 ($382,105), the biggest cash of his career ahead of a second-place finish at last year’s WPT Venice. Toby Lewis, meanwhile, gets the breakthrough he’d been waiting for in live tournaments and takes home €467,835 ($599,905) to boot.

British online poker star Toby Lewis leads EPT Vilamoura. (Photo: The Hendon Mob)

Four days are down in Vilamoura, Portugal, site of the latest European Poker Tour main event, and the top three chip stacks heading into the final table all belong to British poker players.

Chip leader Toby “810ofclubs” Lewis (3,322,000) is a successful online poker player who’s a relative newcomer to live poker tournaments. Already the eighth-ranked online player in the UK according to PocketFives, Lewis’ first live cash came with a win in a £200 buy-in tournament in Brighton back in the spring of 2009. Since then he has piled up another $171,669 in live tournament earnings, including two EPT cashes. He has already secured the biggest live tournament cash of his career regardless of his finish tomorrow.

Second-place man Sam Trickett (3,365,000 in chips) has been cashing in poker tournaments for only about the last three years, but he’s made the most of that short time by winning nearly $1.33 million, impressing nearly every time he sits at the table. His fourth-place finish in the 2008 WSOP $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event was worth $245,927. At this year’s Series the biggest of the former professional soccer player’s six cashes ($505,725) came from a second-place performance in the same event, and he had a chance at an even bigger score before becoming the final table bubble boy in the $25,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em event and settling for a $141,168 payday instead. A win tomorrow would mark the seventh tournament victory of his short career.

And in third place is Teddy Sheringham (1,783,000). With 415 English Premier League games and 51 international appearances for the English national soccer team under his belt, Sheringham picked up live poker tournaments as a hobby. He nearly had a big breakthrough at last year’s WSOP Europe Main Event, finishing in 14th place of 334 players to grab a $66,738 prize. If he finishes in seventh place or higher in this tournament he’ll have grabbed his biggest career cash.

Of course, there are still five other players left, including short-stacked former EPT Grand Final champ Rob Hollink. But at the 12,000/24,000/2,000 level they’ll all need some luck on their side since none of them have more than 50 big blinds. Along with the three British poker players dominating the leaderboard, they’ll be back in action at noon local time tomorrow to see who takes the €467,835 ($597,285) top prize.

Former England international star Teddy Sheringham seeks his first poker tournament title in Portugal.

Just 69 players of a record-breaking field of 384 survived the first two days of play at EPT Vilamoura, and the man at the front of the pack was looking to become only the third player to win poker’s Triple Crown. Brandon Cantu bagged up 557,400 in chips last night when play ended and guaranteed that he would make the final table, putting a little bit of pressure on himself for the start of Day 3 as he looked to add an EPT title to the WPT and WSOP wins he already has on his C.V. 

In the end, Cantu’s guarantee turned out to be a no-go. After cruising through the money bubble he ran into several stumbling blocks before losing two big hands in a row, including a crucial coin-flip with A-K against pocket nines, to send him to the rail with a minor cash but no Triple Crown honors.

As Day 3 has progressed, though, a few other stories have emerged. Two players from the suddenly poker-happy nation of Hungary - Janos Toth and Marton Czuczor - remain in the top ten with 33 players left. And two former professional soccer players from England - Sam Trickett, who turned to poker after his knee went out on him, and former international and Premier League standout Teddy Sheringham - also currently sit in the top ten chip counts.

Play at EPT Vilamoura will continue until only 24 players remain, and tomorrow will see them play down to a final table.

No time for rust to set in - the European Poker Tour is back in action.

Just two weeks after its first-ever stop in Estonia, the European Poker Tour got back to the felt this weekend in Portugal. EPT Vilamoura kicked off with two Day 1 flights on Saturday and Sunday. The two starting days combined for a total of 384 entrants, a new record for a live poker tournament in Portugal, and built a total prize pool of €1,862,400. Just 56 of those players will make the money, with a a top prize of €467,835 awaiting the winner of the event.

Leading the field when 221 players return today to begin the task of eliminating Day 1 survivors will be online qualifier Leonid Bilokur of Russia, who bagged up 161,200 in chips at the end of Day 1B. He’s followed closely by Day 1A chip leader Andre Coimbra (157,600), with notable poker players like Sam Trickett (132,600), Sorel Mizzi (132,200), Dario Minieri (131,400), Antonio Esfandiari (127,800), Brandon Cantu (122,400), Antony Lellouche (114,100), EPT Grand Final winner Nicolas Chouity (108,800), David Williams (86,100) and Liv Boeree (79,300) lurking further down the chip counts.

At this early point nobody can be a real favorite, but one man to keep an eye on today is Arnaud Mattern. After bagging up 119,200 in chips on Day 1A, the French poker pro appears to be have shaken off the bad beat that sent him packing in third place at EPT Tallinn. If he can continue to play top-level poker he may be back in the running to become the first two-time EPT champ faster than anyone expected from him.

EPT Vilamoura resumes at Casino Vilamoura in Portugal at noon local time today.

Kevin Stani turned a small stake into a big payday in Estonia.

An accomplished live tournament pro may have come into the final table of EPT Tallinn with the lead, but it was an online poker player with only a handful of live cashes to his credit who walked away with first place.

Kevin Stani, an online poker player who won his way into the tournament in a $530 satellite he played on a whim, emerged victorious over a field of 420 players on the European Poker Tour’s first stop in the Estonian capital of Tallinn. The Norwegian has been playing online poker for the last seven years with a focus on cash games, but recently he made the decision to play more live tournaments.

Stani, who entered the final table in second place behind chip leader Arnaud Mattern, bobbed and weaved until play was four-handed, when his pocket eights held up against Dmitry Vitkind’s smaller pair and gutshot straight draw to send the Russian to the rail. Then he four-bet shoved holding pocket threes in a blind-versus-blind situation, ran into Mattern’s pocket queens, and turned a trey to bust the pro and set himself up with the chip lead against Konstantin Bilyauer for the title. Stani’s run-good lasted through the final river card, when he got Bilyauer to call off his stack drawing dead.

For the EPT Tallinn win, Stani takes home €400,000 (US $512,800) on his $530 investment, by far the biggest cash of his live tournament career. His previous best was a 127th-place finish in this year’s WSOP Main Event, good for $57,102. With all his recent tournament success, Stani will be one to watch in London this September when the EPT and WSOP Europe converge on the British capital.

Arnaud Mattern in happier times, before a two-outer ended his run in Estonia.

Earlier today Arnaud Mattern was looking to become the first player ever to repeat as a European Poker Tour champion. Now he’s bemoaning his bad luck after a brutal beat that sent him home from Tallinn, Estonia, in third place.

Things were certainly aligned properly to give Mattern a solid shot at becoming the first two-time EPT champion. He entered the final table with nearly 30 percent of the chip in play and extended his lead when he eliminated the final table’s first player, Bassam Elnajjar, with pocket aces against A-Q. He also busted Mikko Jaatinen, holding A-K to the Finn’s K-9, to take the action down to four-handed.

From there, though, the Mattern Express unable to pick up any more speed thanks to Kevin Stani and Konstantin Bilyauer, two players who won their seats through satellite events. The last three players at the table, they took turns exchanging pots - and the chip lead - until Stani jumped out to a significant lead thanks to a timely bluff against Mattern. Only minutes later Stani would make another aggressive play against the Frenchman, this one timed much more poorly than the first. He opened with 3-3 and then made it four bets all-in after Mattern had made it three bets. Mattern immediately called with pocket queens, making him a 4:1 favorite to double up into the chip lead. Instead another trey fell on the turn, giving Stani a set, and the blank river ended the hand.

Arnaud Mattern took home €160,000 for his third-place finish at EPT Tallinn. He will have to wait until the end of this month, when the tour goes to Vilamoura, Portugal, to make another run at becoming the first repeat European Poker Tour champion.

French poker pro Arnaud Mattern looks to make EPT history tomorrow.

Arnaud Mattern has one European Poker Tour title and more than $1.5 million in tournament earnings since 2005. Now he’s one step away from doing something nobody else has ever done - becoming a repeat EPT winner. Mattern won his first EPT title in Prague, Czech Republic, back in 2007, and this will actually be his second chance to become a repeat winner. He made the final table of the EPT Polish Open main event in Warsaw back in 2008 but finished in fifth place.

Now he holds the chip lead after four full days of play at the EPT’s first stop in Tallinn, the capital of the Baltic republic of Estonia. With just eight players remaining he holds more than 29 percent of the total chips in play, while Norwegian online qualifier Kevin Stani and Russian live satellite winner Konstantin Bilyauer, who sit second and third in chips, each have more than 20 percent of the chips in play. 

There are still five other players at the table who will have something to say about the eventual outcome in Tallinn, too. But there’s no better position to be in heading into the final table than that of Arnaud Mattern. With €400,000 and the chance to become the first player ever to win two EPT main events on the line, a victory in Tallinn would be career-defining for the French poker pro. As for whether he'll be able to achieve that feat, we'll have to wait until the cards get back in the air tomorrow to find out.

Finnish metal man Voitto Rintala made Day 2 but busted before the money.

The European Poker Tour has finished all the preliminary work in Tallinn, Estonia, and is down to the real business today with Day 2 action.

Perica Bukara of Serbia finished Day 1B with the biggest stack, bagging up 210,600 in chips to surpass Day 1A leader Ali Tekintamgac and claim the title of EPT Tallinn overall Day 1 chip leader. Fresh off a final table finish at the Unibet Open in Prague, Czech Republic, Bukara would be able to claim the biggest cash of his career if he were to make the final table, regardless of finishing position.

The rest of the 210-strong field got to work today at noon local time to begin playing down to the money, and necessity meant that dozens of them would have to bust out before the money. Among those who fell on Day 2 were EPT Barcelona final tablist and Romanian Poker Championship High Roller runner-up Mihai Manole, 2010 WSOP $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em champion Valdemar Kwaysser, 2009 WSOP $2,000 Limit Hold’em winner Marc Naalden and Finnish metal bassist Voitto Rintala.

The top 56 finishers will get paid at EPT Tallinn, with the last player at the table taking home a whopping €400,000 - not bad for the first major international live poker tournament held in Estonia.

Swissotel Tallinn is hosting its first major international poker tournament.

The second day of the European Poker Tour main event in Tallinn, Estonia, is nearly complete, and EPT Tournament Director Thomas Kremser has announced the final numbers for the tournament.

The first major international poker tournament held in Estonia, EPT Tallinn drew a solid field. The second starting flight drew an even bigger field than the first; some 238 players turned up for Day 1B to boost the total field to 420. At €4,250 apiece, that total built a prize pool of €1,596,000. Just 56 players will walk away with cash, with the bottom tier receiving €6,350 and the winner taking home €400,000.

Leading the way at the end of Day 1A was Ali Tekintamgac of Germany, who finished with 203,200 in chips. Tekintamgac is the reigning champion of the World Poker Tour’s Spanish Championship, which was his first major live poker tournament breakthrough after a string of minor tournament cashes throughout 2009 at the Kings Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. He also finished fifth in the Italian Poker Tour main event in Venice last month, suggesting that he’s on a bit of a roll right now.

Tekintamgac and the other 88 survivors from Day 1A will join today’s remaining players when Day 2 of EPT Tallinn begins at Swissotel in the Estonian capital tomorrow at noon local time.

The EPT visits Tallinn, Estonia, for the first time today.

After taking a few months off for a holiday, the European Poker Tour is back in action today with another stop behind the former Iron Curtain.

The seventh season of the EPT began earlier today with a new event in Tallinn, the capital of the former Soviet republic of Estonia. Past seasons of the EPT have seen tournaments held in other Eastern European locales like Poland, the Ukraine, and Hungary.

A healthy field of 182 players showed up for Day 1A of EPT Tallinn, with poker pros Annette Obrestad, Carter Phillips, Sorel Mizzi, Ivan Demidov, Praz Bansi, Alex Kravchenko and Scott Montgomery all putting up the €4,250 to enter the field. The second starting flight, which already had more than 70 players registered before today’s action kicked off, begins at noon tomorrow and should draw at least a few more known quantities. Two more days of play will yield the last nine players, who will play down to a winner on the fifth and final day of the tournament.

After years of adding and removing events, the European Poker Tour appears to be finally settling in a bit. The Estonian stop represents the only new venue on the schedule for Season 7. The tour will return to Portugal later this month for EPT Vilamoura, and afterward make stops at familiar venues in England, Spain, the Czech Republic, France, Denmark, Austria, Germany and Italy.