Last weekend, financial adviser, Magnus Petersson, stunned onlookers when he fought back from a 2-1 heads up chip deficit to fend off renowned pro and former gamer, Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier, and become the 2007 Copenhagen EPT champion.Having sailed comfortably into the final eight with 622,000 chips, the quiet and reserved Swede looked on as more aggressive players such as Thomas Holm and Theo Jorgensen exited stage left, before finally pouncing when down to three.
Sandwiched between two vastly larger stacks in ElkY and Hungarian player, Richard Toth, Petersson made his move with a most unlikely hand, 2-7 off-suit. Re-raising Toth all-in pre-flop, Magnus was slightly red-faced to receive a call and reveal his paltry holding, but when the Flop brought a second deuce, the Swede earned a timely double up and never looked back.
After the hand, Magnus even commented: "With the 2-7 off, I'd decided I was going to be more aggressive and use my tight image to my advantage. I wanted to put Richard to a decision, I think there are a lot of hands he could have folded."
With ElkY finishing off Toth in second with A-Q vs. A-5, everyone fully expected the PokerStars' player to finish off his lesser known opponent in record time. However, with Magnus all-in with 3-3 vs. the pro's A-2 on a 7-T-2-2-3 board, the positions were soon reversed with Magnus emerging as the unlikely favourite.And, with ElkY's confidence in shatters, Magnus snatched the title when his all-in with Qc-6c on a Flop of Qs-7c-6h was called by the Frenchman's Ah-Jh. No heart on the Turn or River and it was all over. A demoralised ElkY shook his head in disbelief, whilst the understandably excitable Swede could only shout, "Yes, yes, yes!" the final result perhaps amazing even himself.
Like an exhausted marathon runner, Magnus draped the Swedish flag around his body before absorbing all the media attention that is directed towards each EPT victor.
Whilst the final table was mainly made up of less well known players, Jan Sjavik, John Shipley, Iwan Jones, Claus Nielsen, Jim Kerrigan, Roy Brindley, Nick Slade and Christian Grundvig all made it into the cash, the Brits performing well but seemingly unable to clear that final hurdle.
There was even a surprise appearance from 20th place finisher, TJ Cloutier, who had qualified online for just $10. The former American footballer was a foreboding presence throughout, but fell by the wayside during the latter stages, K-3 vs. Sjavik's Pocket Threes turning out to be his swan song.
So, with Mads Andersen taking top honours in 2006, and Magnus Petersson this year, it would appear as though the title is destined to remain in Scandinavia. Either way, the important observation is that, although hampered somewhat by the recent loss of Deauville, the EPT marches on and seems stronger than ever.As with last year, Copenhagen proved itself to be a worthy starting point for each year - popular as ever and well organised in every sense. If only these places could learn to serve food post 12pm, we'd have the icing on the cake. Yum, cake...
[Ed Note: To view the full results of this event, please click here]