American pro Stephen Song outlasted 1,975 entrants to win the €5,300 buy-in 2024 EPT Barcelona Main Event for a score worth over €1.29 million. Song survived a final table that included Marius-Catalin Pertea, David Coleman, Rania Nasreddine, Andrew Hulme, and Boris Kuzmanovic. Song and British pro Andrew Hulme cut a heads-up deal, but Song went on to win their heads-up joust and Hume banked €1.16 million.
Ship it to Stephen Song. The former GPI Player of the Year and WSOP bracelet winner had never won an EPT event, let alone advanced to the final table of one, before this month. Song finally secured a spot at the final table in Barcelona but did not squander the opportunity. Song went the distance to notch his first EPT victory. He also locked up the first seven-figure score of his career. The pro from Connecticut is closing in on $8 million in career earnings and he's currently in the Top 100 on Hendon Mob for all-time in tournaments and ranked #98. His score at the EPT Barcelona is his largest single cash to date worth over $1.4 million bucks or €1.29 million in Euros.
PokerStars is quietly celebrating their 20th anniversary of the EPT (mostly because they were sidelined during the lost years of the pandemic). British TV producer and poker player John Duthie envisioned an international poker circuit in the biggest cities in Europe. His dream became a reality when the first season of the European Poker Tour was launched in 2004-05.
Alexander Stevic shipped the first EPT event in Barcelona back in 2004. Other EPT Barcelona winners included Jan Boubli (€426K) in 2005, Bjorn-Erik Glenne (€691K) in 2006, Sander Lylloff (€1.17 million) in 2007, Sebastian Ruthenberg (€1.36 million) in 2008, Carter Phillips (€850K) in 2009, Kent Lundmark (€825K) in 2010, Martin Schleich (€850K) in 2011, Mikalai Pobal (€1 million) in 2012, Tom Middleton (€924K) in 2013, Andre Lettau (€794K) in 2014, John Juanda (€1 million) in 2015, Sebastian Malec (€1.1 million) in 2016, Sebastian Sorensson (€987K) in 2017, Piotr Nurzynski (€1.03 million) in 2018, Simon Brandstrom (€1.29 million) in 2019), Giuliano Bendinelli (€1.49 million in 2022, and Simon Wiciak (€1.13 million) in 2023.
The 2024 EPT Barcelona, hosted at the Barcelona Casino, had been running for a couple of weeks. The marquee Main Event had a €5,300 buy-in, which attracted 1,975 total entries including 506 re-entries. The 2024 field was the fourth-largest prize pool in history with over €9.57 million in play. The top 287 places paid out with a min-cash worth €8,700.
Among the noteworthy names who cashed and went deep included Erik Seidel, Niklas Astedt, Jack Sinclair, Simon Wiciak, Mark Teltscher, Jan-Eric Schwippert, Asher Conniff, Brock Wilson, Ramon Colillas, Marle Spragg, Alec Torelli, Griffin Benger, Tom Middleton, Ami Barer, Alex Difelice, Farid Jattin, Darren Rabinowitz, Parker Talbot, Alexandre Reard, Jens Kylloenen, Sonny Franco, Teun Mulder, Pierre Fromage, and Guy Goossens.
Canada's Alexandre Fournier busted n seventh and bubble the final table. With six to go, Stephen Song held a slight chip lead with 15.1M. Romania's Marius-Catalin Pertea was second with 14.5M. Two other Americans made the final table including David Coleman (10.4M) and Rania Nasreddine (8.3M). The two short stacks were Andrew Hulme from the UK with 5.5M and Croatia's Boris Kuzmanovic with 5.2M.
Hulme avoided an early bust out and spun up his stack to secure a heads-up spot against big-stacked Song. However, Boris Kuzmanovic was not able to work any Croatian magic and he was the first player to exit the final table in sixth place which paid out €307K.
Coleman was the next player to hit the bricks wen he busted in fifth place, which paid out a few Euros short of €399K. Rania Nasreddine saw her epic run come to a halt in fourth place, which paid out €518,600. Romania's Marius-Catalin Pertea was picked off in third place, which paid out an impressive €674K. Not too shabby eh?
With two remaining, Song held a slight lead with escalating blinds. Song had 33.55 against Hulme's 25.635. They crunched the numbers and agreed on an ICM deal where Hulme locked up €1.16 million and Song securing €1.23 million. They had to leave a little extra cash on the table worth €56,800 plus the coveted EPT trophy.
On the final hand, Hulme attempted to double up with pocket eights against Song's Ace-seven aka "The Tourist." Song picked up a gutshot draft on a favorable flop of 
. The four of spades popped up on the turn and Song improved to a seven-high straight. Hulme had a glimmer of hope with a potential chop if a seven magically appeared on the river. Alas, the 
appeared and Hulme missed a straight. Song's straight bested Hulme's pocket ochos and he won the pot and the tournament.
Song ended up with a first-place prize worth €1,290,386, which marked the largest cash of his career. His previous biggest score was $712,650 for a victory at the WPT Prime Championship at the Wynn in Las Vegas in 2022.
Song won one WSOP bracelet back in 2019, along with six WSOP Circuit rings, one WPT title, and he finally has a EPT win.
2024 EPT Barcelona
Buy-in: €5,300
Entries: 1,975
Prize Pool: €9,578,750
Payouts: 287
Final Table Results:
1. Stephen Song (USA) €1,290,386 **
2. Andrew Hulme (UK) €1,165,614 **
3. Marius-Catalin Pertea (Romania) €674,150
4. Rania Nasreddine (USA) €518,600
5. David Coleman (USA) €398,950
6. Boris Kuzmanovic (Croatia) €306,900
** Denotes heads-up deal
