The World Series of Poker Europe, since its inception back in 2007, has been strangely fortunate to always have a big name pro take down the Main Event, and this year when the tournament was down to only 25 players it seemed that trend was likely to continue with top payers like Barry Greenstein, Phil Ivey, Hoyt Corkins and Viktor Blom, all still deep in the hunt.  Of course if big buy-in tournament poker is anything, it’s unpredictable, and by the time the event was down to its final nine, all those pros had fallen aside and a new less known pro was on route to the biggest score of his career. 

England’s James Bord, primarily a cash game player with no previous tournament cashes above $30,000, turned out to be that pro, winning an impressive top prize worth over $1.3 million, as well as his first WSOP bracelet. 

Bord, not only outlasted the above listed pros- and 341 others- he also survived a tough final table full of fierce competitors like Roland de Wolfe, Nicolas Levi and Victory Poker CEO Dan Fleyshman, despite entering it with a chip stack below the nine player median. 

The final challenger, between Bord and the bracelet, ended up being Fabrizio Baldassari, who he handily defeated despite Baldassari having three times his chips when the heads-up portion of the match began.  For the runner-up finish, Baldassari earned £513,049- or about $810,000 USD.

The final table finish positions for the 2010 WSOP Europe main event were as follows:

1st.  James Bord- £830,401

2nd.  Fabrizio Baldassari- £513,049

3rd.  Ronald Lee- £376,829

4th.  Roland de Wolfe- £278,945

5th.  Nicolas Levi- £208,119

6th.  Danny Steinberg- £156,530

7th.  Dan Fleyshman- £118,643

8th.  Brian Powell- £90,617

9th.  Marc Inizan- £69,754

For more details regarding the 2010 World Series of Poker Europe visit www.wsop.com.