Talal Shakerchi Wins the EPT London High Roller (£436,330)!
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Talal Shakerchi may not have been the biggest name at the 2013 PokerStars.com European Poker Tour London High Roller final table, but after six hours of play, the British player picked up the title as well £436,330 for his first-place finish. He started the day as the chip leader and is no stranger to these sort of events. Shakerchi previously won the €10,000 turbo six-max at the EPT Grand Final in Season 8, as well as also appearing at the final table of the €50,000 Super High Roller in Barcelona earlier this season. With this result, he now has over a $1 million in lifetime tournament earnings.
Short-stack Dimitar Danchev was the first player to be eliminated. The Bulgarian who won the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure a couple of months back lost a coin flip to Faraz Jaka on his final hand and took home £29,540 for his finish. Meanwhile, Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren also began the day with a short stack, but fared a bit better than Danchev. She was able to double up when her ace-rag held against Gautam Sabharwal's king-jack for a 400,000-chip pot.
The first major dramatic moment was the one-two punch just before the break that saw Fabian Quoss double up through Shakerchi, and then Sabharwal eliminate Frenchman Eric Sfez. Shakerchi made a move against Quoss, hoping the German didn't have the goods, but quickly found out that he did. Then, just as everyone went on break, Sabharwal's aces held against Sfez' flush draw to knock him out in eighth place, and the remaining players were fairly surprised to come back from their break numbering only seven instead of eight.
JC Alvarado was knocked out in seventh when he got incredibly unlucky against Quoss in an 800,000-chip pot. Paul Volpe almost followed him soon after, but, in a blind-on-blind battle against Sabharwal, his king-eight held off the challenge of the Indian's jack-ten.
By this time, Coren had gotten short again, and she finally succumbed when her small pocket pair of fives couldn't beat the ace-jack of Quoss, with the latter flopping two aces for good measure.
Sabharwal had been chip leader at various points of the day, but he was eliminated in fifth place for £87,270 when he turned top pair and a gut-shot straight draw, only to find Jaka had flopped a straight.
This left Quoss, Shakerchi, Jaka and Volpe — the latter of whom has been on a real hot streak as of late. Volpe lost a crucial flip to Quoss to leave him as the short stack, and the bad luck would continue when Volpe found an ace, only for Shakerchi pick up a dominating hand. With his fourth-place finish worth £107,410, Volpe's 2013 live tournament earnings now top $1.27 million.
Quoss himself would be out of the door next. He flopped two pair against Shakerchi's gutshot and flush draw, and the straight hit. The German couldn't make a boat to survive and fell in third place for £147,690. Like Volpe, Quoss is having quite the year. With this result, Quoss pushed his 2013 earnings up over $1.08 million.
This left Shakerchi with over a 4:1 chip lead in heads-up play against Jaka, and it didn't take long for a cooler hand to leave the British player victorious.
With the blinds at 25,000/50,000/5,000, Jaka opened to 110,000 on the button. Shakerchi three-bet to 255,000, Jaka four-bet to 510,000, and Shakerchi moved all in. Jaka quickly called with the 
, but Shakerchi's 
had him dominated. After the board ran out 
, Jaka was eliminated in second place to give the title to Shakerchi.
Final Table Payouts
| Position | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Talal Shakerchi | £436,330 |
| 2nd | Faraz Jaka | £241,670 |
| 3rd | Fabian Quoss | £147,690 |
| 4th | Paul Volpe | £107,410 |
| 5th | Gautam Sabharwal | £87,270 |
| 6th | Vicky Coren | £67,130 |
| 7th | JC Alvarado | £53,700 |
| 8th | Eric Sfez | £40,280 |
| 9th | Dimitrar Danchev | £29,540 |