Sporting Life 15 Oct -- Poker ace Joseph Mouawaf, from Lebanon, made poker history for his country this week when he won the Poker Stars European Tour London final table, netting a cool £611520 for his troubles.

Almost 400 players in all entered to pursue the big money and poker respect of the EPT event, and by day three this had been whittled down to 40 players who returned to the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London on Friday to play down to the final table.   

At that stage Mouawad, who had qualified online, was not even among the chip leaders. Florian Langmann of Germany started the day with the chip lead, and survived all the way to the heads-up match before falling to Mouawad, who with remarkable tenacity and skill had played to prominence from way back in the field.

The final table included a good mix of nationalities and featured Florian Langmann (Germany), Joseph Mouawad (Lebanon), Marcel Baran (Germany), Josh Egan (New Zealand), Anthony Lellouche (France), Paul Mendes (UK), Ian Cox (UK) and Fredrik Haugen (Sweden).

Cox went to the rail in eighth place for £57 075, quickly followed by Paul Mendes in seventh place for £77 459, taken down by Lellouche, but the Frenchman's elation was shortlived as he fell to a skilful play by Baran.

Swedish player Haugen, the 2006 Caribbean Poker Classic champion, was next to go - a victim of Langmann. It only took a few hands of three-way action for Langmann to bust Baran in third place. Mouawad took a small chip lead into heads-up play, with the chip stacks as follows:

Joseph Moauwad: 2 162 000
Florian Langmann: 1 880 000

It took only an hour of heads up action to decide the final winner, as Mouawad steadily built up his lead. Heads-up play lasted less than an hour before all the chips finally went into the middle, as Mouawad steadily built his advantage. Langmann was eliminated in second place for £346 528, and Mouawad (47) was crowned the new EPT London champion, saying of his victory, "I feel very much magnificent!"