This weekend saw the climax of the Ladbrokes Poker Cruise Main Event with 22-year-old Norwegian player Eirik Bjorkland taking home the spoils.
Bjorkland, who plays under the alias 'NorFlush' netted a massive $371,275 (£208,015), beating off strong competition from Adam Eskola (Eskobet) and Jonathan Kalmer (Skalie) who positioned 2 nd and 3rd respectively.
332 players sat down to compete in the $5,500 No Limit Hold-Em Main Event with a whole host of online qualifiers doing battle. Although the majority of the field was made up of exclusively online talent, there were a few pros present. Familiar names such as Stuart Fox, Paul Jackson, and Bengt Sonnert were all competing, but it was an unknown that would eventually take top prize and the largest cut of the impressive 1 million pound prize pool.
Heading into the final, it was Kalmer who held the biggest stack. However, the Englishman was ultimately forced to settle for the paltry sum of $170,000 (£95,256) for his 3 rd place finish . Then, after a brief heads up battle, Eskola was defeated by the Norwegian, although the $235,000 (£131,664) he took back to his cabin should certainly have softened the blow.