10/8/09 - 23-year-old Internet poker pro Aaron Gustavson from Las Vegas continued his successful online and live tourney run this year with a resounding win in the main event of the PokerStars European Poker Tour event in London this week. 
Surviving a record field 730 players, among them some of the world's best, Gustavson ended the competition facing World Series of Poker champion and fellow Internet whizz Peter Eastgate in a short heads up.
Gustavson, who secured his seat in the event by winning an $800 buy-in satellite at PokerStars, won a main prize worth GBP 850 000 for his achievement, commenting: "I'm overwhelmed right now. The money is obviously amazing and having a title is amazing. It's a dream come true."
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Gustavson, a former Northport, New York resident, has a number of significant career cashes to his credit, mainly in online tourneys. This year alone he has achieved a first place finish in the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up worth $135 000, along with a final table appearance in the Nightly Hundred Grand for another $10 400.
The EPT London main event final table comprised Gustavson, WSOP main event champ Peter Eastgate, Nikolai Senninger, Martin Gudvangen, Dominic Cullen, Rui Milhomens, Raymond Wu and Karim Bennani.
Bennanni was the first to head for the rail, followed by Raymond Wu and Rui Milhomen of Portugal. Dominic Cullen from Britain was taken out in fifth position by Eastgate, and he was followed by Martin Gudvangen and in third place Nikolai Senninger, clearing the way for a heads up of Gustavson vs. Eastgate, with the former holding a 2 to 1 chip lead.
Running strongly, Gustavson made short work of his opponent in one of the shortest yet EPT heads ups. Eastgate lost half his chips in the first hand played, and was clearly in trouble with a sparse stack compared to that of his opposition. After seven hands it was done and dusted, with a delighted Gustavson taking the title and the large first prize - his biggest career win to date.
For his second placing Eastgate collected GBP 530 000, and the six figure prizes went as far down as sixth placed Rui Milhomens, who took home GBP 124 000.
