Online Qualifier wins EPT London
October 1, 2007
Joseph Mouawad, a 47 year old father of three from Beirut has won the London event of the European Poker Tour.
He was one of nine PokerStars qualifiers that cashed in the event, together online qualifiers won a combined total of £1,184,307 - more than half the total prize pool of £2,038,400 ($US 4,156,000)
Mouawad becomes the 5th online qualifier to win an EPT event, and the 2nd 'Joe' of Lebanese decent to turn their play on PokerStars into a big money live tournament prize. 2005 WSOP champ Joe Hachem being the other of course.
Mouawad defeated Florian Langmann, 24, the reigning German champion to take first place. Mouawad went all in with Q3 and was called by Langmann with 89. The flop of Q96 paired up both players but another queen on the turn gave Mouawad the win.
"I didn't expect to win at all," said Mouawad.
"It was fun, and a big achievement, and I went up against some great players."
Mouawad has been playing poker for 15 years but only took up Hold'em when it became popular in his local casino.
"There are now a lot of successful players from Lebanon including Joe Hachem and Freddie Deeb."
Mouawad, the third Lebanese player to cash at an EPT, also wins a seat at the €10,000 EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final next April.
The final placings were;
| Place | Player | Country | Winnings |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Joseph Mouawad |
Lebanon |
£611,500 |
|
2 |
Florian Langmann |
Germany |
£346,528 |
|
3 |
Marcel Baran |
Germany |
£203,840 |
|
4 |
Josh Egan |
New Zealand |
£152,880 |
|
5 |
Fredrik Haugen |
Sweden |
£124,342 |
|
6 |
Antony Lellouche |
France |
£97,843 |
|
7 |
Paul Mendes |
UK |
£77,459 |
|
8 |
Ian Cox |
UK |
£57,075 |
The next EPT is the Baden Classic in Austria, from October 7-10, closely followed by EPT Dublin (October 30 - November 3). You can qualify for all EPT events online at PokerStars, the World's largest online poker site.
