Gavin Griffin is EPT Finale Champ

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April 3, 2007 - Gavin Griffin wins EPT Grand Finale and €1.8 million prize

Gavin Griffin from Illinois USA was at one time the youngest player to ever win a WSOP Bracelet (2004) he has since proven his victory was no fluke. Coming off a 3rd place finish just a month earlier at a WSOP circuit event Gavin won the biggest tournament and cash prize of his career. Last night (April 2, 2007) he secured the EPT Grand Finale Title which included a $2.43 Million dollar cash prize.

When the final table started Gavin Griffin had the lead and Marc Karam was in second place. Both of them battled their way to the final heads up match to decide the championship. During the final table Gavin eliminated Scandinavian players Kristian Kjondal and Soren Kongsgaard while Marc eliminated British players Ram Vaswani and Steve Jelinek.

 

When Gavin eliminated Soren Kongsgaard (third place) he began the heads up match at a slight chip disadvantage. The two battled it out for more than 2 hours as Griffin eventually gained and slowly built upon a lead.

 

On the final hand Griffin opened the pot for $150,000 and Karam raised to $400,000. The flop came 4d-3c-2s and Karam bet $500,000 Gavin quickly raised to $2 Million and Karam game over the top all in. After much though Gavin made the call with Kd-5s (open ended straight draw) and Karam turned over 7s-4s. The turn was a 3 of hearts bringing no help to either player. It was the river King of hearts that gave Gavin Griffin both the winning hand and tournament championship.

 

Gavin wore a PokerStars logo during this event because they agreed to donate $15,000 to von Walk for(against) Breast Cancer which is a charity Gavin has been supporting.

 

About Gavin Griffin:

Gavin was born in Darien, Illinois on August 28, 1981. He spent four years studying at Texas Christian University in Forth Worth while working on the side as a poker dealer. In May 2004 at age 22 Gavin became the youngest player to win a WSOP bracelet when he won over $270K for first place in the $3,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em which has been broadcast numerous times on ESPN.