Spindler Crushes his Way to Victory at EPT London

By: Matthew Showell

In a wire-to-wire victory 26-year-old German poker pro Benny Spindler outlasted a field of 691 players at the 2011 PokerStars.com EPT London main event.

Spindler, an accomplished player both online and live, defeated American Steve O’Dwyer to win his first major title and £750,000.

O’Dwyer received £465,000 for his runner-up finish.

The third stop on the European Poker Tour’s eighth season, EPT London’s main event played out over seven days at the Hilton Metropole and built a prize pool of £3,351,350, roughly $5.17 million USD.

Previous to this EPT win Spindler had earned nearly $2 million playing live tournaments.

“I don’t play poker for titles, I play for the money,” he told PokerListings.com moments after the heads-up match had concluded.

A quiet person, Spindler enjoys his anonymity and prefers to maintain a low profile, something that was already proving difficult with the degree of success the young German has enjoyed in recent years.

“It’s cool to win a big tournament but it comes with a lot of media attention which I don’t really enjoy,” he said.

“I don’t want to be seen as some rich poker player. When I go out with people I just want to be one of them.”

Spindler’s biggest previous score was a third place finish at the 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, officially earning him $1.1 million.

The truth, however, is that a deal was struck three ways between Spindler, Anthony Greg and eventual winner Poorya Nazari. Spindler took the biggest piece of the three-way chop and successfully kept himself out of the winner interview chair.

His second biggest score before tonight was a second-place finish in the €25k EPT High Roller event at last year’s Grand Final in Madrid, good for $469,000.

But now that Spindler finally finds himself in the winner’s circle he’ll have to resign himself to the interviews, photos and requests that come with being a champion.

Spindler said that he won’t be doing anything extravagant with his winnings, but rather will put it away for his future.

“It would be really nice if I could earn enough money playing poker that I’d never have to worry for the rest of my life,” said Spindler.

With approximately $3 million in earnings now on his record that goal is closer than ever.

Here's a look at the full final table results.

1^st -  Benny Spindler, Germany - £750,000
2^nd - Steve O'Dwyer, USA - £465,000
3^rd - Andre Klebanov, Germany - £265,000
4^th - Juan Manuel Pastor, Spain - £200,000
5^th - Mattias Bergstrom, Sweden - £155,000
6^th - Kevin Iacofano, USA - £120,000
7^th - Martins Adeniya, UK -  £86,350
8^th - Miroslav Benes, Czech Republic - £64,000

PokerListings.com was on hand for the duration of this year’s EPT London main event. Click here to check out our daily live coverage, and click here for a rundown of everyone who cashed in this event.