After the first game week of the Barcelona EPT, the action is steadily increasing, but the past two days were no exception. On Monday, the opening flight 1A of the long-awaited Main Event took place on the other side. Since then, many promised to break all records, but these expectations were fulfilled to the fullest.
Already the opening 1A produced a strong 749 entries, of which 227 players got to pack the stacks after playing ten hour-long levels. They are led by Anthony Cierco with a stack of 322,000 (starting was 30,000), and we can find few familiar names in it, such as Adrian Mateos (197,000), Alejandro Lococo (165,000), Julien Martini (148,000), Orpen Kisacikoglu (123,500), Niklas Astedt (121,000), Dimitar Danchev (114,500), Mustapha Kanit (112,500), Ramon Colillas (93,500), Kenny Hallaert (89,500), Sam Greenwood (79,500) or Felipe Ramos (49,000).
The second and at the same time the last flight, gave the whole festival a beautiful glow in the form of a massive 1,485 entries, which broke all possible records. Just a few days after playing the largest event ever held under the EPT brand (ME Estrellas – 6,313 entries), the record in the main tournament was also broken and a new goal was set. We found out the final numbers only today, because registration was open until the start of day 2, which was used by 65 players. The final number of this event was 2,294 entries, which means a prize pool worth €11,125,900.
Champion of the record ME 2019 - Simon Brandstorm
The words of tournament director Toby Stone only confirm the job well done and the joy of success: "The record we managed to set together here in Barcelona just proves how strong live events PS can organize, despite the two-year pandemic break. The team behind this whole thing put a huge amount of effort into the process to give players the best possible experience. I am very happy that it all worked out and we broke the historical record!"
The numbers and overall appearance of this event are all the more fascinating when we look at its beginnings. Only 18 years ago, the first ever EPT took place in Barcelona, which attended 229 players who paid a €1,000 entry fee. The champion then became Alexander Stevic, who, as the first ever EPT champion, made €80,000. Today we are talking about more than 2,000 players and prize pools in the order of millions of euros!
On day 3, the field shrunk in to the last 210 players, who are led by Kayhan Mokri. In the penultimate level of the day, the bubble burst to send all of the remaining players into the money. The payouts were planned to pay the top 327 finishers, but Emmanuel Rouvet, Daan Mulders, and Oliver Bosch were all eliminated on the money bubble, and the trio split the 326th and 327th place prizes to receive €5,907 each. Some big poker names will leave the ME empty handed. For example Alejandro Lococo, Ramon Collinas, Adrian Mateos, Erik Seidel, Francisco Benitez or Mikita Badziakouski. Some of the players who bagged a stack by the end of the day include Ramiro Petrone (561,000), Maria Lampropulos (517,000), Seth Davies (480,000), defending EPT Barcelona Main Event champ Simon Brandstrom (473,000), Gaelle Baumann (408,000), Timothy Adams (387,000)
Mikita Badziakouski Wins EPT Barcelona €100K Super High Roller
In 2018, the Belarus native won the Super High Roller the first time it was a €100,000 buy-in. Four years later, the 30-year-old poker pro did it again. Badziakouski defeated Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel after a long and grueling heads-up match to add another EPT Barcelona Super High Roller trophy to his impressive resume, as well as the €1,979,220 top prize. Already 10th on the all-time money list, the win will put him right behind Phil Ivey and Jason Koon.
Source: PokerNews.com
