After a couple of weeks of nonstop poker action, the 2019 EPT Barcelona came to an end with the conclusion of the Main Event championship. A total of 1,988 runners took part in the €5,300 buy-in event. Simon Brandstrom from Sweden and Hungary's Marton Czuczor agreed to a heads-up money chop. Brandstrom would go on to win the tournament and title along with a first-place prize worth €1,290,166 or approximately $1,420,000 USD.
Ship it to Sweden! The 2019 European Poker Tour Main Event had another fantastic ending this year with Hungary and Sweden battling it out for the title and bricks of cash. Simon Brandstrom and Marton Czuczor chopped up the top two money spots and then slugged it out for the title, trophy, and bragging rights. Along the way, they faded a dangerous and deep field of poker enthusiasts from all over the globe that gathered for another season of the European Poker Tour.
The online poker industry and gambling world is rapidly changing and it barely resembles what the global poker scene looked like 15 years ago when John Duthie kicked off his concept of a poker tour exclusively set in Europe. The European Poker Tour was born and they never looked back. A lot of the faces have changed, but the EPT brand is still one of the strongest and most recognized in the gaming world.
The 2019 EPT Barcelona expanded into a festival of poker that attracted local players and high-stakes sharks to play in various events to fit their bankrolls. Spain's Juan Pardo shipped back-to-back high rollers last week.
PokerStars also used the EPT Barcelona to launch the next installation of the PokerStars Players Championship. Yup, mark your calendars for August 2020 because Barcelona will be the next location for the 2020 PSPC.
The 2019 EPT Barcelona Main Event had a €5,300 buy-in, which attracted 1,988 runners and a prize pool that topped over €9.6 million. That's amazing to think how far the EPT Barcelona has come since its inaugural event back in 2004 with the Barcelona Open that attracted just 229 runners for a 1K event.
In the 2019 EPT Barcelona Main Event, the top 296 players were awarded a piece of the price pool with most of the cheesecake set aside for the final table. Initially, the champ would warn €1,659,000 for a victory with only €884K to the runner-up. The final two players this year agreed to a heads-up chop in which both players banked over €1.2 million.
The final table included Simon Brandstrom, Marton Czuczor, Rui Sousa, Diego Falcone, Giovani Torre, Yunye Lu, Johan Storakers, Pasquale Braco, and Kully Sidhu.
Alexander Ivarsson bubbled the final table in tenth place.
Kully Sidhu from the UK was the first player to exit the final table, which paid out nearly €122K. Italy's Pasquale Braco bounced in eighth place soon after.
Are we witnessing a Scandi resurgence on the tournament scene? Two Swedish players advance to the final table and one went the distance. Johan Storakers hit the bricks in seventh place, but banked nearly €227K.
Yunye Lu, Asia's lone rep at the final table from China, capped off an excellent week in Spain with a sixth-place finish worth €295,520.
Brazil's Diego Falcone was knocked out in fourth place for a score worth nearly a half-million in USD.
Two players from Portugal advance to the final table and finished in the top 5. Giovani Torre took fifth place while Rui Sosua busted in third place. Sousa earned a payout worth €607,400.
With Sousa busting, it set up a heads-up bout between Hungary's Marton Czuczor and Sweden's Simon Brandstrom.
According to the original payouts, first place paid out €1.65 million and second place would earn just €884,400. The final two decided upon an even money split with an additional 77K left on the table for first place plus the coveted trophy.
When the dust settled, Brandstrom picked off Czuczor. The Hungarian earned a second-place payday worth €1.25 million or approximately $1.37 million. Not too shabby, eh?
Simon Brandstrom earned the title and a first place payout totaling €1.29 million, or roughly $1.420 million yankee bucks.
American pros Shannon Shorr and Ike Haxton went pretty deep, but failed to advance to the final table. French pro Gaelle Baumann also embarked on a sensational run, but her tournament abruptly ended in 20th place.
Notables who also went deep in the EPT Barcelona Main Event and cashed included... Steve O'Dwyer, Gaelle Baumann, Ike Haxton, Shannon Shorr, Patrik Antonius, Leo Margets, Martin Jacobson, Ryan Tosoc, Alex Foxen, Andres Korn, Griffin Benger, Tony Dunst, Parker Talbot, Luc Greenwood, Markku Koplimaa, Stefan Jedlicka, Ben Farrell, Angel Guillen, Robert Mizrachi, Fatima De Melo, Bart Lybaert, Jimmy Kebe, Anton Wigg, Dan Dvoress, Philippe d'Auteuil Luke Appleton, Bruno Lopes, Molly Mossey, Simon Mattson, Scott Franklin, Michele Perego, Dario Sammartino, Jelle Moene, Luis Perez, Ying Kit Chan, Fabrice Maltez, Ben Chalor, Hon Lee, Ran Ilani, Lauri Varonen, Julien Mariano, Ted McQuilkin, Ruby Lambert, and Sumit Asrani.
2019 EPT Barcelona Main Event
Buy-in: €5,300
Entrants: 1,988
Prize Pool: €9,641,700
Payouts: 296
Final Table Results:
1. Simon Brandstrom (Sweden) €1,290,166*
2. Marton Czuczor (Hungary) €1,253,234*
3. Rui Sousa (Portugal) €607,400
4. Diego Falcone (Brazil) €436,760
5. Giovani Torre (Portugal) €364,660
6. Yunye Lu (China) €295,520
7. Johan Storakers (Sweden) €226,490
8. Pasquale Braco (Italy) €159,580
9. Kully Sidhu (U.K.) €121,760
