Charalambos “Bambos” Xanthos has been crowned the 2009 Littlewoods World Heads-Up Poker Champion and takes home his biggest tournament prize to date of £65,000 ($107,500). The £3,300 buy-in event, which took place at the Victoria Casino, London, lasted three days and on the final day Bambos had to battle his way past two hardened opponents to claim his victory.
First up was his semi-final match against Russian Victor Ilyukhin who confidently said to the Greek Cypriot poker pro:
“All my life I’ve been unlucky, but I woke up this morning and was so confident. I never crack aces. I could crack two jokers today, even if you had quad jokers.”
However, during their two hour match Bambos manage to hold onto the lead and finally eliminated his opponent after the chips all went to the centre of the table on a Qd 10d 9c board with Bambos holding Jd 9h to Ilyukhin 9d 6d. The turn and river failed to improve the Russian’s hand and after the match Bambos commented:
“I decided I’m going to play tight. He played open, so when I played a hand I gave the impression I had a good hand. If I have a mediocre hand I decide I’m just going to call him and let him bluff off his chips to me. I kept him lopsided.”
Meanwhile, the other semi-final draw was between Laurence Houghton and James Mitchell. Their match lasted two hours and the writing was on the wall for Houghton after an A on the river beat his pocket J’s holding. Now low on chips Houghton pushed with K 3 only to walk into Mitchell’s K 9 who then progressed to the final.
The deciding heads-up match was a real action affair with both players gaining the upper hand at times until Bambos managed to pull out in front for a 3 to 1 chip advantage and take command of the match. The final hand saw Bambos check raising an Ad 10d 4c board and calling Mitchell’s all-in. Bambos was out in front with his A versus his opponents middle pair and another A on the river clinched the title for the Greek Cypriot restaurant owner based in London.
Bambos Xanthos’ victory at the 2009 Littlewoods Poker World Heads-Up Poker Championship now increases his total live tournament winnings to well over $1 million.
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