Aaron “aguskb” Gustavson, a 23-year old poker player from Las Vegas, blazed through the tables in the PokerStars European Poker Tour, London, Main Event, beating a grand total of 730 players and earning himself the EPT Title as well as a whopping £850,000.
The Icing on the Cake
If anybody ever asked him about his year, Aaron would undoubtedly say that it was going well. Just last summer, he won a nifty $53,592 in a preliminary event in the Borgata Summer Open. It was a very nice victory that buffed his credentials up quite well. His life online was going pretty well too, as he won an even more impressive $135,010 in PokerStars’ Sunday Warm-up. But this—well, this was just the icing on the cake. Winning £850,000, or $1,354,042, in the PokerStars EPT London Main Event was simply – in his very own words – amazing.
But winning the main event was no piece of cake. Aaron had to battle some of the biggest names in poker, among them was Peter Eastgate, the WSOP main event champion. The other players in the table were Martin Gudvangen, Nikolai Senninger, Dominic Cullen, Raymond Wu, Rui Milhomens, and Karim Bennanismires. Among them, however, it was Aaron who had the biggest pot. He had 7,140,000 in chips – almost 4 million more than Eastgate’s 3,535,000. Aaron owed this to his spectacular performance in the games before he landed on the final table along with the 7 other final contestants.
Gustavon vs. Eastgate
The action was intense, but of course, the other players were bumped off the table eventually. The only two left were Aaron Gustavson and Peter Eastgate, both formidable players. The flop was QC, 5S, and 2S; the turn was KC, and the river was 5H. Aaron held AC and QD while Eastgate held AH and 9D. It was obviously Aaron with the better cards – but you know how it is with poker. It doesn’t really matter who has the better cards. What matters is one’s ability to read your opponent and to bluff convincingly. Eventually, Eastgate made an all-in move and Gustavson called. The hands were revealed and Aaron was crowned the victor. Aaron Gustavson won the final battle in no more than 10 hands – truly impressive, considering that he was up against a WSOP champion. But Eastgate didn’t go home empty handed. He earned £530,000 – a heads up loss, but still quite considerable and not too far behind Aaron’s £850,000.
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