EPT Barcelona is over – Martin Schleich wins!

Sept. 3, 2011, Posted by Pokerfarm

The biggest live tournament ever held on Spanish soil has come to its end. A total of 811 players attended the event and built up an amazing prize-pool of €4,055,000. Martin Schleich from Germany outlived his competition and took home a massive €850,000 first place prize.

As days were passing, more and more of players were left behind and the final table was set last night. The biggest name was surely Team Pokerstars Pro Eugene Katchalov who was hunting for his "Triple Crown" but was knocked out in third place. Katchalov started the final table as eighth in chips and even managed to completely turn the tide and become the table captain, but that was short-lived as he was sent out to pick up his €315,000 check.

The tournament itself hosted a great number of well-known players, both tournament and cash game experts. Many big names like Viktor Blom, Vanessa Selbst, Victor Ramdin and other notables were shown the door after either cashing in consolation prizes or nothing at all.

Four local players were in the race for the main prize with Tomeu Gomila starting the final table as the chip leader, counting 6,985,000 chips. Israeli Saar Wilf and Raul Mestre of Spain closely followed the leader with their stacks well above 4,000,000 while Isabel Baltazar, Martin Schleich and Dragan Kostic were hovering around the two million mark. Juan Manuel Perez started the final day with a little bit over 1M chips and Eugene Katchalov was well under that mark.

The French lady Isabel was the first player sent to the cashier and she was rewarded with €73,000 for her efforts. Juan Manuel Perez finished the day in the same position as he started, cashing in €105,000 and was almost immediately followed by Saar Wilf who took home €145,000. The next two who were sent to the rail were Gomila and Mestre, leaving Kostic as the only Spaniard on the green felt. They were rewarded with €185,000 and €244,000 respectively. We saw some three-way action from that point on and Katchalov saw his exit by shoving pocket sevens, only to be called by Schleich's pocket nines. The board failed to help Katchalov and the Ukrainian went to collect his check.

Kostic and Schleich continued with heads-up play and the German was soon in a commanding position with a 17,000,000 to 7,000,000 lead. Schleich raised the button, Kostic announced he was all-in and was quickly called by the soon-to-be winner of EPT Barcelona. Kostic flipped over A7o and was dominated against the German's A9o. Without the board's help Kostic was down to zero chips as Martin Schleich began his celebration. Dragan Kostic will certainly be leaving Barcelona as a happy man even though he was left without the title, as he netted in a whooping €532,000.

Congratulations to all of the final table contestants and especially the winner Martin Schleich from all of us at The Pokerfarm!