A 19-year-old freshman American student Jeff Williams won the PokerStars-dot-com European Poker Tour Grand Final today (March 11) after beating off competition from a total of 298 players - including three World Champions.
Jeff Williams, of Dunwoody, began playing in third place Saturday, the final day of the tournament in Monte Carlo, Monaco, according to officials from the Web site PokerStars-dot-com, which sponsored the event. The nearly 300-player tournament, which included 38 other Americans, began Wednesday. The boy had entered the day as the only American remaining in the tournament.
On the final hand of the tournament, which came shortly before 5 p.m. EST, Williams put all of his chips at risk with an ace and a ten, dominating an ace and an eight held by second-place finisher Arshad Hussain of Great Britain, according to the website. Neither player made a pair with any of the five shared "community cards" that followed.
Jeff Williams survived three World Series of Poker world champions, including American Greg Raymer and the winner of last year, Joseph Hachem of Australia. Marcel "The Flying Dutchman" Luske, a well-known professional player, took seventh place in the tournament.
The teenager won entry to the ten-thousand-Euro ($11,914) tournament by winning a 40-dollar online poker tournament last month on the Web site PokerStars-dot-com. The smaller tournament granted him entry into a larger, 650-dollar online poker tournament that allowed its top nine players to play in the European Poker Tour Grand Final.
Williams, who has not played many large-player tournaments, said that the only thing keeping him from playing other tournaments in the future is his age - he must be 21 to play in U.S. casinos. In Europe, the legal age is 18.
