EPT London: John Juanda Closing in on First EPT Title
Four bracelet winner John Juanda will go into the final table of the EPT London Main Event, sharing the chip lead with Kyle Bowker. Together, they hold more than half of the chips that will be on the final table.
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| Image source: PokerStarsBlog.com |
Only eight players remain after Day 4 of the PokerStars European Poker Tour London Main Event. They will all return for one more day of play, to decide who will walk away with the £900,000 prize. By making it this far, they are all guaranteed at least £66,800 in prize money.
Both John Juan (pictured right) and Kyle Bowker currently stand head and shoulders above the other six finalists, as they each hold almost twice the number of chips in third placed David Vamplew's stack. Only one big blind separates Juanda and Bowker, but Vamplew is over 40 big blinds behind them.
Giant Killer Juanda
In terms of his poker resume, John Juan is certainly a giant himself, with four WSOP bracelets and over $10 million in live tournament winnings. On Day 4, he eliminated French Team PokerStars pro Thomas Bichon and Joe Hachem to move himself closer to his first EPT win.
Hachem was sent to the rails in 15th place when he shoved for 10 big blinds from the button with 
and Juanda snap called with 
. The board blanked and the 2005 WSOP Main Event champion was sent home with just £25,000.
Not long after, it was Bichon's turn to go in 14th place. On a board of 
, Juanda had called preflop, and called a 3-bet on the flop. Bichon decided to go all in on the turn and Juanda made the call with 
. Bichon was outkicked with 
and did not hit his three-outer on the river.
Here is how the eight finalists stack up at the start of the final table:
| EPT London Main Event Final Table Chip Counts |
||
| Rank | Name | Chips |
| 1 | Kyle Bowker | 7,165,000 |
| 2 | John Juanda | 7,075,000 |
| 3 | David Vamplew | 3,670,000 |
| 4 | Artur Wasek | 2,250,000 |
| 5 | Tom Marchese | 1,480,000 |
| 6 | Kayvan Payman | 1,295,000 |
| 7 | Per Ummer | 1,245,000 |
| 8 | Fernando Brito | 1,100,000 |
| Level info | |
| Level | 28 |
| Blinds | 40,000 / 80,000 |
| Ante | 5,000 |
| Player info | |
| Remaining players | 8 |
| Entries | 848 |
