WSOP Europe / Dave Allan / 08 October 2008 / Leave a comment

London has been the focal point of the poker world over the last month or so, not least with the second running of the World Series of Poker Europe at the Casino at The Empire, presented by Betfair, writes Rob Eddy.

John Juanda became the first American to win a WSOP bracelet on this side of the Atlantic and with it, a pretty substantial paycheck.

But he was not the only big winner in the UK's capital after compatriot Michael Martin came back from the dead to scoop £1,000,000 with his victory in the European Poker Tour's London leg.

Everyone in the poker world has heard of the old adage of 'all you need is a chip and a chair', and although Martin's situation perhaps was not as dire as that, he made a remarkable comeback to take down the prize.

Again it was another truly global final table with players, albeit a little less famous than those at the WSOPE, hailing from Ireland, Poland, Canada, Sweden, Germany, France and two from the US.

And I doubt that any of them would have picked Martin to be the last man standing after he found himself in a seemingly hopeless situation with just 95,000 chips, with the blinds at 40,000 and 80,000.

This position arrived with just four players left it has to be said but with the chip leader having over 2million, and Martin barely being able to cover one big blind it is still a pretty amazing feat.

The 22-year-old American, who finished fifth in the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo earlier this year, won a number of coin flips to triple up and double up twice, before he knocked out Eric Liu in fourth place when his Ac 9S held up against Js 10h.

He then sent Marcin Horecki packing in third place when his Ks Jd beat Kh 8d with a jack on the river, after an 8 on the turn.

Starting heads up play, Martin now held a 4 to 1 chip lead over Sweden's Michael Tureniec and it was perhaps surprising that it took 105 minutes of play before Martin could finally celebrate his first tournament victory, when his pocket 4s held up against Kh 9c.

The £5,200 buy-in event had proved to have grown in popularity with the field of 596 players this year, compared to 392 in 2007, creating a prize pool of £3,349,200 and the biggest first prize dished out in London this year (so far).