EPT 100: Great anniversary – great records
The first round of the 11th season of the European Poker Tour is over. It is the 100th round in succession. Some incredible records have been set and the dreams of some individual players have turned into reality.
It all began long before the start of the August EPT round. First players hadn’t strived to Barcelona yet but the entire poker world was already set on its ear: the 100th stop of the most influential poker series in the world – it was definitely worth visiting.
Everyone understood that history would be made in Spain.
And it happened that way.
Russian МТТ-regular Anatoliy «NL_Profit» Filatov posing for a picture in Barcelona
The largest field in the history of PokerStars
Barcelona EPT round was traditionally preceded by a local series Estrellas Poker Tour. Miracles had already started to happen there. Almost 2,600 people registered to take part in the main event with € 1,100 buy-in– it is an all-time record in the number of participants in a tournament. The number of players in the previous record field was less by 500 people.
€50k Super High Roller: Busquet and young padawan Colman
The first great tournament of EPT Barcelona Super High Roller with € 50,000 buy-in also set a record: almost 80 registrations! Last year the prize fund consisted of 51 buy-ins; the Russian player Vitaliy Lunkin celebrated his victory then.
After the first day of the tournament such giants as Sam Trickett and Ole Schemion were leading; and after the second day future champions Olivier Busquet and his “padawan” Daniel Coleman began to catch up.
The third day of the Super High Roller was a real mayhem: having absorbed the energy of the light side Olivier unleashed all his destructive power on his opponents. What a hand he made against the German player Sven Reichardt.
Having exposed on the pre-flop with A♣2♣ against the “cowboys” of the opponent, Busquet was in a great ... trouble. On the flop most of players would just went to the room and didn’t wait for the turn and river: 8♥8♣K♣ – the German caught a full house, only runner-runner aces saved the American.
And here it is! Tern – A♥ (half of the task was completed), river ... A♦! Less than one percent for winning!
Subsequently, Olivier Busquet knocked out two opponents with aces and won the winner of $ 1,000,000 One Drop Daniel Colman in heads-up.
Results of EPT Barcelona € 50k Super High Roller:
1. Olivier Busquet (USA) – €896,434*
2. Daniel Colman – €843,066*
3. Vladimir Troyanovsky – €473,200
4. Scott Seiver – €364,200
5. Sam Trickett – €288,400
6. Sven Reichardt – €225,500
7. Morten Klein – €177,500
8. Dan Shak – €138,600
9. Mustapha Kanit – €105,455.
* The prize fund was divided between these players.
€5,300 Main Event: Who are these people?
Fifteen hundred people. Fifteen hundred people in the tournament with € 5,300 buy-in. More players took part only in the sixth and seventh seasons of PCA, however, more only by 30 and 60 players respectively.
The main event EPT Barcelona 2014 was the third-largest event in the history of the series. And this is a key figure.
The tenth part of the field were Germans – 170 people; there were many French, Russians, British and, of course, Spanish.
The story of the Dutch banker
After the fourth tournament day the chip count consisting of 25 people was led by the Dutchman Bram Haenraets. It was impossible to pull him over in the databases of poker players: the 30-year-old banker played in a live tournament for the first time. Furthermore, the player from the Netherlands was qualified via satellite for € 82.
“I just can’t believe it. Of course, I wanted to be the chip leader, but what are the odds. And now I can win, I have the biggest stack,”- said Bram.
The Dutchman did not win, although he increased his initial investment more than 1,100 times (9th place, € 92,800).
Turning back to the events of the main tournament we cannot but tell you about the final table. To say that it featured many stars is to apply an impudent hyperbole. Most of the players took part in the tournament of such level for the first time, except for the WPT champion Andrea Dato and the PCA Main Event 2013 finalist Andrey Shatilov.
Results of the EPT Barcelona Main Event:
1. Andre Lettau (Germany) – €794,058*
2. Samuel Phillips – €1,021,275*
3. Hossein Ensan – €652,667*
4. Andrea Dato – €362,000
5. Andrey Shatilov – €286,000
6. KirillRodionov – €224,500
7. Chi Zhang – €171,600
8. Slaven Popov – €121,300.
* The prize fund was divided between these players.
The biggest part of the prize fund was divided among hardly known people: the total prize of this trio (before these drifts) did not exceed $ 100,000; and the official winner Andre Lettau chalked up the first (!) cash in his career!
The young German would prefermoney to titles; later he said: “It is not bad to win the EPT champion title”. And then he added: “In heads-up I played with a strong opponent, the chips were up and down. Can I go now?”
The Belarusian player Kirill Rodionov, who earned such a large prize for the first time in his career, was even less talkative, he wrote in his Twitter: “I am satisfied ;)”. Perhaps, such relaxing activities helped to the regular of Cyprus tournaments:
Kirill «angrymoron» Rodionov is gaining his power
You can watch the main event of the tournament Super High Roller and the Main Event in this video:
€10,300 High Roller: The power of the Belarusian poker player
The High Roller Tournament of the anniversary EPT round has beaten all the previous records: about 400 people! The number of players in the previous PCA High Roller was less by 150 people.
During the first day the leaders were Americans Jason Mercier and Dan Smith, as well as the Briton Stephen Chidwick who reached the final. The second game period finished with the triumph of the Russian-speaking poker professional players: Belarusians Igor Soyka and Dmitry Yurasov and the Russian player Ismail Erkenov came off the second best in the chip count.
The very next day the winner was determined. It was the Belarusian MTT regular Igor «OMGitshunt» Soyka who earned online more than $ 3 million.
Results of EPT Barcelona High Roller:
1. Igor Soyka (Belarus) – €747,200
2. Jason Mercier – €473,500
3. Ismail Erkenov – €342,400
4. Ami Barer – €276,900
5. Benjamin Pollak – €219,000
6. Marc-Andre Ladouceur – €168,600
7. Stephen Chidwick– €125,600
8. Carlos Chadha – €90,900
9. Maxim Panyak – €73,600
10. Dmitry Yurasov – €60,850.
More than 6,000,000 chips had been played in the most spectacular and biggest hand of the last day; it was about a third of all the chips in play.
Erkenov reraised the bet of the Belarusian on the pre-flop and continued playing on the dangerous flop – A♦J♦T♦. Igor responded. On the turn – 5♠ - Erkenov checked and called, and on the river – 5♣ – he had to go all-in.
It came out that Soyka caught Street on the flop - K♣Q♠, and the Russian played only with a top pair and a flush draw - A♣2♦.
Ismail Erkenov
The only rival of the Belarusian after this serious battle was Jason Mercier. He surrendered in 15 minutes.
And that‘s the whole story. The great poker festival came to an end. In October the second round of the 11th season of the European Poker Tour will be held in London. But that's another story...
Tournament photos: Pokerstarsblog