Where Are They Now: EPT London Season 2 (2005) Champ Mark Teltscher
The EPT London returned in Season 2 and the ￡4,000 buy-in Main Event saw attendance increase to 236 players, which created a prize pool of ￡1,033,000. Three men from England made the final table that year, and for the second year in a row an Englishman walked away with the title. Mark Teltscher, born January 16, 1980, didn’t have a tournament score to his name prior to winning the EPT London, but as soon as he claimed victory he had one worth ￡280,000 on his résumé.
Less than three months later, Teltscher was once again making headlines when he topped a field of 233 players to win the $5,000 event at the Fourth Annual Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas. Teltscher defeated a final table that included Lee Markholt (5th - $42,505) and Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi (4th - $56,660) to walk away with the $374,965 first-place prize and one of poker’s most prestigious titles.
In 2007, Teltscher was a part of a controversy involving PokerStars and the WCOOP Main Event. The username that Teltscher busted in the tournament, but before long a rumor surfaced that he was playing under a different name, “TheV0id,” which was listed under his sister’s name, Natalie Teltscher. “TheV0id” went on to win the tournament, but PokerStars disqualified the player and denied the $1.2-million prize. The following year, Natalie filed a lawsuit against PokerStars on the Isle of Man, but after the online site presented their evidence, Natalie admitted it was not her playing the tournament and subsequently withdrew the claim.
Despite that incident, things didn’t slow down for Teltscher in the years that followed. He finished runner-up to Sander Lyloff in the Season 4 EPT Barcelona for ￡673,000, and then five months later finished runner-up to Howard Lederer in the 2008 Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge for $571,368.
In December of that year, Teltscher was back at the final table at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic, ultimately finishing second in a $5,000 event behind Tim Bullard for $158,710. In the past five years, Teltscher has numerous five-figure scores with his most recent being a sixth-place finish in the 2013 WSOP Event #44 $3,000 No Limit Hold’em for $92,186.
Teltscher kicked off his poker career on the EPT and has shown no signs of slowing down in the eight years that followed.