Already today, the record-breaking EPT Barcelona stop will end with the crowning of a new Main Event champion, who will be one of the six participants of the final day. For the third day in a row, they are led by Frenchman Simon Wiciak, a former soccer player who learned to play poker in the soccer locker room. Even though he has a full-time job as an engineer at Air Liquide, he has already hit some nice results on the online scene, and today he is also waiting for a record entry in live poker, where he won only one hundred thousand dollars so far.
While Wiciak will start from the chip leader position for the third day in a row, PS ambassador Andre Akkari demonstrated a slightly different strategy. The Brazilian representative first started day 5 from the last place, then as a short he got to the last place among the participants of the sixth day, but in the same way he made it to the final table, where he starts with the smallest, 18bb stack. The 48-year-old Brazilian has been fully dedicated to poker for more than ten years, during which he literally caused a poker boom in his native country. If Akkari makes it to the top 3 today, he will surpass his biggest hit of his life so far, when he won a bracelet in the $1,500 WSOP event in 2011, and with it $675,117.
The provisional second place before the final belongs to the British representative Carl Shaw, who is also a poker professional. In his nearly 10-year career, he won nearly $1.3 million, led by a $606,562 prize from the $5k WSOP event, where he also won a bracelet. He also has a deep run in the WSOP Main Event, and after today also a record deep run in the EPT Main Event.
The staff of the final table is further completed by 27-year-old Canadian Santiago Plante, who after 16 ITMs at this year's WSOP also successfully starred in Barcelona, where he reached ITMs in all four of his tournaments. 37-year-old Joao Sydenstricker from Brazil has been playing poker since he was 12 years old, but he is especially successful at the online tables, where he has, for example, the Sunday Million title. Last on the table is Argentina's Ezequiel Waigel, a pro who appears in the top 10 of Argentina's all-time money list with nearly 2 million in live tournaments. Many may know him under the nickname eze88888, under which he managed to win the WCOOP Main Event in 2018 for a record $1,529,000.
Final table chip count:
- Simon Wiciak – 22,875,000 (92bb)
- Carl Shaw – 17,400,000 (70bb)
- Santiago Plante – 7,500,000 (30bb)
- Joao Sydenstricker – 6,150,000 (25bb)
- Ezequiel Waigel – 5,150,000 (21bb)
- Andre Akkari – 4,500,000 (18bb)
Each of the participants of the final table already has a guaranteed €302,500 payout in their pocket, but each will be hunting for glory, a trophy and a prize of €1,488,000 associated with first place. The TV show of this final will start at 12:30 with blinds of 125k/250k and it looks like we have a lot to look forward to!
Final Table Payout Structure:
- 1,488,000€
- 931,250€
- 664,750€
- 511,300€
- 393,300€
- 302,500€
Source: PSlive, PokerNews, YouTube, Flickr
