Adeniya Leads Final Table in EPT London Main Event

UK poker player Martins Adeniya, takes a million chip lead into the final day of the PokerStars EPT London Main Event, after a day of roller-coaster fortunes in what has to be one of the most aggressive feature tournaments witnessed on the tour. Adeniya withstood the challenge of German “uber-aggressor” Benny Spindler, to overtake the previous chip leader Matthias Bergstrom on the last hand of the day and lead a final table which includes PokerStars Pro player Juan Manuel Pastor and the last online qualifier standing, Czech Miroslav Benes.

The Penultimate Day Kicks Off at a Cracking Pace

One of the features of this year´s London EPT Main Event has been the speed at which players have been eliminated, and on Wednesday it was no different. Short-stacked Sebastian Blom (older brother of Viktor) was – as we predicted yesterday – not prepared to play patiently and wait for the right opportunity.

Instead we waited just until his first big blind, when he shoved with {10♣} {3♦} against a raise by Hugo Loureiro ({7♠} {7♦}) and the call of Ioannis Beris ({K♥} {J♠}). Loureiro check-raised all-in after the flop of {K♦} {3♥} {K♠} and was snapped called by Beris – with the Greek qualifier hitting trip Kings, taking the pot and sending Blom to the rail.

Bergstrom Takes Huge Early Advantage

Blom was joined within the hour by Per Hildebrand, Justas Semaska, Aadam Daya, Fowzi Baroukh and Basile Yaiche, who was crippled in one of the first hands of the day by overnight chip leader, Matthias Bergstrom. With blinds at 8,000/16,000, Bergstrom opened from middle position with a bet of 34,000 and Yaiche raised to 112,000 from the big blind. Bergstrom called, and called Yaiche´s bet of 85,000 after the flop of {K♦} {3♥} {K♠}.

Yaiche again acted first after the turn of {10♦} – firing in 190,000, which was raised to 380,000 by Bergstrom and called by the Frenchman. The {2♦} on the turn prompted Yaiche to check and Bergstrom to push 400,000 chips into the centre of the table. Yaiche called, and was physically shell-shocked to see Bergstrom turn over {10♠} {10♣} for a full house – revealing {A♠} {K♥} for a flopped set.

Bergstrom Extends Early Advantage

Having started the day ahead of two players within two big blinds of him, Bergstrom wasted no time in using the chips captured from Yaiche to build a stack more than double his nearest competitor. First he damaged the aspirations of UK poker player James Mitchell when flopping a pair of Aces and calling Mitchell´s two aggressive streets of action with pocket threes. He then allowed American Steve O´Dwyer to lead the action after flopping two pairs (Aces and Jacks), increasing his chip stack to 3.1 million in the process.

Within half an hour, Bergstrom surged ahead even further when coming from behind to eliminate Andries Swart in eighteenth, and as the field reduced to two tables after the knockout of the last remaining previous EPT Main Event winner – Joao Barbosa – in seventeenth, in looked as if Matthias Bergstrom was going to take a huge chip advantage into the final day. However, Benny Spindler and Martins Adeniya had other ideas.

Spindler Makes Ground, but Adeniya Takes Lead

Benny Spindler had been at, or near, the top of the leaderboard of both Day 1 and Day 2 of the EPT London Main Event, and had his sights firmly on regaining the top position by close of play. Taking out Ben Jenkins ({Q♠} {J♥}) in thirteenth when his {J♠} {J♦} held, Spindler then eliminated Hugo Loureiro when catching a backdoor straight against Loureiro´s flopped pair of Aces and sent Jeremy Kottler to the rail, when the turned {Q♦} paired with the {Q♠} in his hand to dominate Kottler´s {7♦} {7♣} and put Spindler in the lead. Bergstrom took a hand back off Spindler to take pole position again, but his lead was only temporary as Adeniya took the chip lead on the last hand of the night.

Martins Adeniya has the style of play that will ensure his chip stack is going one way or another and the point was never best illustrated than during the concluding stages of Day 5. Starting the day with slightly over 1 million chips, Adeniya took a huge pot from James Mitchell when his {A♣} {Q♣} paired on the flop. He then lost almost a million chips when his {A♦} {A♥} was cracked by Kevin Iacofano´s {K♦} {K♠} when one of Iacofano´s two-outers dropped on the river. He then seemed to be the only man capable of standing up to Benny Spindler – taking a pre-flop pot of more than one million chips uncontested – and grabbed the lead at the death by eliminating Adria Balaguer with a flopped full house against Balaguer´s flopped trip sevens.

EPT London Final Table Chip Counts

Play is scheduled to resume at 12.00 noon and play down until the last man standing collects his winner´s plaque and cheque for £750,000. With Adeniya and Spindler in such aggressive moods, the EPT London Main Event may not take very long to conclude!

Place	Name		Chips
1	Martins Adeniya	UK	4,736,000
2	Mattias Bergstrom	Sweden	3,620,000
3	Benny Spindler	Germany	3,435,000
4	Andre Klebanov	Germany	2,730,000
5	Kevin Iacofano	USA	2,685,000
6	Juan Manuel Pastor	Spain	1,915,000
7	Steve O´Dwyer	USA	1,250,000
8	Miroslav Benes	Czech Republic	370,000

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