EPT Barcelona: Estrellas Main Event Breaks Records, EPT Season 9 Awards, and More

September 04, 2013

Season 10 of the European Poker Tour kicked off this past weekend with the €50,000 Super High Roller and €5,300 Main Event. Vitaly Lunkin won the Super High Roller for €771,300 on Sunday, and the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be bringing you updates on the Main Event for the rest of the week.

While these events have garnered the most attention, there have been plenty of other goings-on at Casino Barcelona. Here’s a look at a few of the more notable happenings:

Estrellas Poker Tour Main Event Draws Record-Breaking 1,798 Players

Prior to Season 10 of the EPT kicking off in Barcelona, the Estrellas Poker Tour (ESPT) was in town as part of the stop’s poker festival. The ESPT €1,000 Main Event ended up setting records after attracting an astounding 1,798 players – making it the biggest $1K event ever held outside Las Vegas.

The field was littered with notables, but only a few managed to make it through to the final table including British PokerStars qualifier Paul Vas Nunes, who held a massive chip lead with 14,475,000 (more than twice as much as his next closest competitor), and Brazil’s Marcelo Fonseca, an LAPT Uruguay champion who was the Day 2 chip leader.

Both of those players made it to four-handed play, which saw Nunes lock up the biggest guaranteed payday.

"Four-handed. I'd just sucked out and knocked out the short stack out in fifth so had the most amount of chips ... I felt I was the better player left but reduced variance and the deal was fairly good, I think," Nunes told the PokerStars Blog.

With a deal in place, the four players battled it out for the title. Fonseca was the first to drop from the foursome, taking home €121,000, and then Germany’s Alin Sameeian followed him out the door in third place for €158,457.

That set up a heads-up battle between Nunes, who placed third in the 2012 World Series of Poker Event #41 $3,000 No Limit Hold’em for $290,407, and Germany’s Jahn Soenke, who had begun the day third in chips. Soenke eventually walked away with the title and €169,136, but Nunes ended up the big winner with €204,589 in prize money.

Read more on the tournament in the PokerStars Blog.

Estrellas 4 Barcelona Main Event Results

*Denotes four-handed deal

EPT Ups the Ante for Season 10 Player of the Year; Joins Forces with the GPI

On Saturday night, the PokerStars Party for the EPT Barcelona was held at the Opium Club. In addition to food and drink, the venue offered a great place for the EPT Season 9 Awards. Here's a look at the recipients:

• EPT9 Online Qualifier of the Year—Anaras Alekberovas
• EPT9 Heads-Up Player of the Year—Ankush Mandavia
• EPT9 Omaha Player of the Year—Miltiadis Kyriakides
• EPT9 Mixed Games Player of the Year—Marcel Luske
• EPT9 Best Country—Norway (accepted by Thor Hansen)
• EPT9 High Roller of the Year—Vladimir Troyanovskiy
• EPT9 Player of the Year—Jan Bendik of Slovakia.

It was also at the EPT Season 9 awards that Lee Jones announced changes to the EPT Season 10 Player of the Year Award. Whoever wins the EPT Season 10 POY will receive €50,000 that can be used to enter any main event operated by the Rational Group, including the EPT, Latin American Poker Tour, Asia Pacific Poker Tour and a series of additional regional poker tours throughout the world – making it the biggest prize for a single player of any “Player of the Year” contest in the poker world.

“It is only fitting that the world’s biggest and richest poker tour – the European Poker Tour – hosts the world’s most prestigious player award for the best player of the season,” said EPT President Edgar Stuchly, who recently spoke to PokerNews about Season 10. “The European Poker Tour features some of the biggest poker tournaments in the world, with the best players in the world, and this prestigious award is matched by a valuable prize.”

What’s more, the EPT has joined forced with the Global Poker Index (GPI) for the latter to use its point formula to track the POY race. For Season 10 of the EPT, players in all live EPT Festival tournaments with at least 24 players and open entry are eligible to earn points. This excludes invitational events and other events with restricted entry requirements, but means it will include most local regional tours that coincide with EPT festivals such as the Estreallas Poker Tour in Barcelona and UKIPT in London.

For more on the EPT9 Player of the Year Awards, visit the PokerStars Blog.

Full Tilt Poker Ambassador Captures Second Women’s Event Title

On the last day of August, Event #2 €330 Women’s Event at the EPT Barcelona saw Croatian Full Tilt Poker Ambassador Hana Soljan top a 86-player field to capture the €6,880 first-place prize. The win marked the second Women’s Event title for Soljan after she won the EPT Prague version back in 2010 after beating out 25 others for the €3,750 prize.

Interestingly, Soljan used to be a houseguest on the Croatian version of Big Brother, though she was evicted after 48 days.

"I don't think there's any advantage to being a woman at the table," Soljan previously told the PokerStars Blog. "I prefer to play against men though as I think I can read them better. But I don't think men underestimate woman, they just don't like to lose to a woman!"

EPT 10 Barcelona Women’s Event Final Table

Currle Claims €2,000 NL Estrellas Poker Tour High Roller Title

As you know, Season 10 of the European Poker Tour kicked off in Barcelona this past weekend, but before it did, there was already big news coming out of Spain regarding the €2,000 NL Estrellas Poker Tour High Roller, which attracted 521 runners and created a prize pool of €934,935.

The field was littered with notables, many of who were in town for the EPT festivities. Here’s a look at the results from that event:

Estrellas 4 Barcelona High Roller Final Results

*Denotes heads-up deal

Notable Finishes: Kevin MacPhee (27th - €5,700), Pieter De Korver (43rd - €3,830), Tim Reilly (45th - €3,830), Gianluca Trebbi (50th - €3,830), Kristijonas Andrulis (63rd - €3,460), Anaras Alekberovas (66th - €3,460), Andrew Lichtenberger (69th - €3,460), Angel Guillen (76th - €3,180)

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PR & Media Manager

PR & Media Manager for PokerNews, Podcast host & 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.

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