Rehman Kassam Victorious at 2017 PokerStars Festival London

The inaugural PokerStars Festival London Main Event is now in the bag with Rehman Kassam, a 23-year-old law student from London, having bested a huge field of 944 players to claim the title for an impressive £89,320 ($111,638). Following a victory which pushes his career earnings to $239,498, Kassam commented that “it was great to play at such a big tournament.”
The event took place at the Hippodrome casino in London, with its prize pool of £824,112 ($1,030,037) enabling 183 players to receive a return on their £990 buy-ins. Amongst the notable pros doing so was Philipp Gruissem in 160th (£1,370), Luca Pagano in 104th (£1,690), James Akenhead in 89th (£2,105), Liv Boeree in 76th (£2,105), and Diego Gomez in 50th (£2,640).
By the time the final table had been reached, Daniel Harwood (6.87m) was the chip leader, followed by Rehman Kassam (5.4m), with Eric Cech the shortest stack at the table on just 1.08m. Eric Cech subsequently managed to keep his hopes alive and eliminate Alexis Fleur in 7th and Clement Tripod in 5th, while Harwood (A-K) took care of Ludovic Geilich (K-9) in 6th, and Yuriy Boyko in 4th to usher in three-handed play.
At this stage, a deal was agreed in which Harwood locked up £95,000, Kassam was guaranteed £81,320, and Cech a payout of £70,000, with £8,000 set aside for the eventual winner. Kassam subsequently sent Cech to the rail, before progressing through to heads-up play, albeit it at a 2-1 chip disadvantage.
Kassam was soon able to reverse positions, though, and on the final hand Kassam (K-10) and Harwood (10-7) went all-in on a 10-6-5 flop. The 4 and Q which were dealt on turn and river then sealed the deal, resulting in Kassam being crowned the PokerStars Festival London champion.
Final Table Results:
1: Rehman Kassam (UK) £89,320*
2: Daniel Harwood (UK) £95,000*
3: Eric Cech (Au) £70,000*
4: Yuriy Boyko (Ire) £43,370
5: Clement Tripodi (Fra) £31,510
6: Ludovic Geilich (UK) £22,950
7: Alexis Fleur (Fra) £16,702
8: Lam Van Trinh (UK) £12,150