British poker star James Akenhead has been crowned champion of the Full Tilt Poker Million VIII tournament, which finished on Friday 4 December. He took part in the invitation-only event after already making the final tables at two WSOP and WSOPE main events earlier this year.

His winning pay check for $500,000 ensured that he finished the year on a high. 72 players from all over the world took part in the tournament. When the final table kicked off, it was Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz who held the chip lead with 397,000 chips, and Akenhead was in second with 338,000. Taylor “Green Plastic” Caby was the first casualty of the night, although he still managed to take home $50,000 for his efforts.

The only other Brit at the final table, Peter Vasiliou, was next, and the players slowly started to leave the action until Akenhead was left facing Juha Helppi in heads-up play . Helppi initially held the chip advantage, but it was never going to be an easy ride with the blinds so high.

In the end Akenhead triumphed with pocket tens against Helppi’s pocket sixes after just under four hours of play. After his win, Akenhead said “I've made lots of final tables but not come first so to win such an event as big as Poker Million is just fantastic.”