Philipp Gruissem Wins $1.38m At London's WPT ALPHA8 Event

German poker pro Philipp Gruissem has won the £100k WPT Alpha8 London, after besting a field of 20 players over two days on his way to capturing the title, and collecting the £862,400 ($1,379,840) first place prize.
With his latest victory in London, Gruissem now boasts an impressive $6,889,894 in live tournament winnings since 2009, to go with the $2,392,192 he has earned online playing under the screen name Philbort.
The small but talented field helped create a prize pool worth $3,145,000, and amongst the high-rollers competing but falling short of one of the four money places was American businessman Bill Perkins, who eventually busted in 10th place, followed by Fabian Quoss, Viktor Blom, and Tony G, who was eliminated on the bubble after his pocket sevens preflop all-in shove faltered against the pocket queens of Philipp Gruissem.
By the time four-handed play had been reached, Gruissem held a commanding chip lead on a 1.153 million stack, followed by Tobias Reinkemeier (355k), US pro Scott Seiver (303k) and Igor Kurganov (191k). In fact, three of the final four players in the money all hailed from Germany.
Reinkemeier (A-J) then proceeded to eliminate Igor Kurganov (4-4) in 4th (£235,200) after the board rolled out A-8-5-3-8, and after Gruissem (4-4) did likewise to Tobias Reinkemeier (A-3) in 3rd (£352,800), the heads-up phase of the competition got underway.
As the final battle commenced, Gruissem held a 1.257 million to 742,000 chip advantage over Scott Seiver, and an hour later the defining hand was played with both players all-in and Gruissem’s A-J up against the K-Q of his opponent. The board subsequently produced a J-9-4-5-4 board to consign Seiver to a runner-up finish worth £509,600, while Philipp Gruissem was crowned the WPT ALPHA8 London champion.
WPT Alpha8 London Results:
1 Philipp Gruissem    £862,400 ($1,379,840)
2 Scott Seiver           £509,600 ($815,360)
3 Tobias Reinkemeier  £352,800 ($564,480)
4 Igor Kurganov       £235,200 ($376,320)