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The London round of the European Poker Tour was won by American Michael Martin who claimed the record £1,000,000 first prize.

The 24-year-old from Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania defeated a field of 596 in the £5,200 buy-in event at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino.

An illustrious field was in attendance following on from the recent World Series of Poker Europe events, contributing to a prize pool of £3,349,200 and they included four of the November Nine - Ylon Schwartz, Peter Eastgate, Darus Suharto and David Rheem - who will return to Las Vegas next month to contest the WSOP final table.

Three men who have previously claimed that crown, Joe Hachem, Greg Raymer and Chris Moneymaker, were also in the field as well as Sebastian Ruthenberg who won the opening event of this season's tour in Barcelona.

TV presenter, journalist and winner of this title two years ago, Vicky Coren, also lined-up as well as sporting superstars Boris Becker and Alberto Tomba.

The final table lasted nearly ten hours and began with Sweden's Michael Tureniec as the chip leader with over 1.3 million in chips.

American pro Eric Liu and Anthony Lellouche from France had the next biggest stacks at the eight-man table.

But Lellouche was an early casualty as Germany's Johannes Strassmann found a king on the flop to sent the veteran from the table with a $114,218 cheque for eighth.

However Strassmann was next to go as Martin's edged out his pocket jacks and then the eventual champion sent Ireland's Alan Smurfit to the rail in sixth with this time pocket jacks a winning hand.

20 minutes later there were only four men left at the table as Pole Marcin Horecki had pocket kings and that ended the bid of Philippe D'Auteuil who had gone All-In holding pocket eights.

Liu was the chip leader just before the dinner break but was doubled through twice in quick succession and went out in fourth as his Jack, ten failed to improve against Martin's Ace high.

Martin then became executioner once more as he re-raised Horecki's All-In and a jack on the river gave the hand to the American and a nearly 3:1 chip lead over Tureniec going into the heads-up.

However a series of incredible hands resulted in a miracle comeback in less than ten minutes and the Swedish qualifier drew level.

But an aggressive Tureniec lost a sizeable hand with only a Queen high and the end came when Martin added to his pocket fours with another on the turn.

Martin's total live tournament winnings now exceed $3,200,000. He has cashed five times at the World Series of Poker, most notably finishing in 232nd place at the 2006 Main Event earning $42,882 out of a field of 8773 entries and finishing runner-up at the $5,000 No Limit Hold'em WSOP Circuit Championship event earning $94,263.

Martine23, as he is known amongst the online community for his success in the high-stakes cash games, was also fifth in last year's European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monte Carlo and won 421,000 and second in the Amsterdam Master Classics last year.

Martin said that he prefers the European Poker Tour to the World Poker Tour.

He said: "I don't really play over in America, because I enjoy playing over here more and traveling, but a lot of it has to do with Europeans getting caught up in pre-flop aggression. If you raise enough pre-flop, then they start to make a lot of mistakes against you. I don't play too crazy after the flop, but preflop they all think I'm in every pot, so they start shoving in with mediocre hands.

"Now I'm going to go back to the US to maybe play Bellagio, but that's unlikely. And then I'm going to come back out here and play all of the EPTs.

"I like the venues; the cities are a lot cooler than going to Tunica. I like to travel a ton. The tournament director, Thomas Kremser, is really good, and the people are more enjoyable here. I just think it's a better tour overall right now."

Results:

1 Michael Martin (USA) £1,000,000 $1,753,600

2 Michael Tureniec (Sweden) £525,314 $921,191

3 Marcin Horecki (Poland) £303,439 $532,111

4 Eric Liu (USA) £234,920 $411,956

5 Philippe Dauteuil (Canada) £195,766 $343,295

6 Alan Smurfit (Ireland) £153,351 $268,916

7 Johannes Strassmann (Germany) £120,723 $211,700

8 Antony Lellouche (France) £81,569 $143,039

9 Erik Sjodin (Sweden) £50,574 $88,687

10 Frode Gjesdal (Norway) £50,574 $88,687

11 Peter Busch (USA) £35,891 $62,938

12 David Benyamine (France) £35,891 $62,938

13 Christopher Wolters (Canada) £26,102 $45,772

14 Gualter Salles (Brazil) £26,102 $45,772

15 Max Pescatori (Italy) £19,576 $34,328

16 Joseph Elpayaa (USA) £19,576 $34,328

17 Robert Firestone (USA) £16,313 $28,606

18 Peter Eastgate (Denmark) £16,313 $28,606

19 Yilmaz Huseyin (Turkey) £16,313 $28,606

20 Brian Green (USA) £16,313 $28,606

21 Jonas Molander (Sweden) £16,313 $28,606

22 Alexia Portal (France) £16,313 $28,606

23 Carter Gill (USA) £16,313 $28,606

24 Justin Truesdell (USA) £16,313 $28,606

25 Ian Frazer (UK) £13,052 $22,888

26 Joao Barbosa (Portugal) £13,052 $22,888

27 Sorel Mizzi (Canada) £13,052 $22,888

28 Ramin Henke (Germany) £13,052 $22,888

29 Tyler Reiman (USA) £13,052 $22,888

30 Gunnar Rabe (Sweden) £13,052 $22,888

31 Beth Shak (USA) £13,052 $22,888

32 Scotty Nguyen (USA) £13,052 $22,888

33 Rene Mouritsen (Denmark) £11,419 $20,024

34 Priyan De Mel (UK) £11,419 $20,024

35 Erik Friberg (Sweden) £11,419 $20,024

36 Andrea Benelli (Italy) £11,419 $20,024

37 Axel Albertsson (Sweden) £11,419 $20,024

38 Vicky Coren (UK) £11,419 $20,024

39 Vanessa Rousso (USA) £11,419 $20,024

40 Toni Ojala (Finland) £11,419 $20,024

Angus MacKenzie / Eurosport