Seat 2: Anton Suarez, 35, Stockholm, Sweden (8,400,000)
Anton Suarez is the only player in the remaining field who already has a €1 million poker prize to his name, earned at a €10,000 buy-in event in Nottingham, UK, in 2020. He has also shown his chops in PokerStars sponsored events, finishing runner-up in a massive Eureka Main Event in Prague in 2022, where second place from a 4,017-entry field earned him more than €300,000.
The EPT Barcelona Main Event first prize trumps that, and would offer the 35-year-old from Stockholm the chance to become the 14th Swedish champion on the tour. Not only that, he has the chance to become the second player from a 50-square-meter area of the Swedish capital to take down the Barcelona Main Event. He and Simon Brandstrom, the 2019 champion, are close neighbors.
Naturally, Suarez has been taking a few tips from Brandstrom as this tournament progresses, but he has an absolutely elite cheering section. He says that Niklas Astedt and Simon Mattsson are his best friends in poker, and he talks to them all the time about the game.
He's a pro player who mainly favours PLO, both cash and tournaments, live and online. He's been in the game since 2009. But the massive prize pools on offer in hold 'em draws him sometimes to the two-card game.
His girlfriend and one-and-a-half-year-old son are watching his tournament progress from home, but Suarez says (understandably) that the youngster doesn't quite understand what's going on just yet. He is, however, enjoying seeing his dad on the stream.
Player profiles courtesy of Jan Kores/PokerStars
Tournament Progression
Day 1: 223,000 (14/424, 1b)
Day 2: 443,000 (20/313)
Day 3: 508,000 (51/103)
Day 4: 2,425,000 (10/29)
Day 5: 15,340,000 (1/11)
Day 6: 8,400,000 (5/6)
Career Statistics
Career earnings: $2,225,234
EPT cashes: 2
Best EPT result: 124th, 2018 EPT Barcelona
Key Hands
Suarez had a dream run on Day 5, first hitting a flush on the river to beat Juan Carlos Vecino's straight and score the knockout.
He then called Alejandro Romero's shove for 1,355,000 on the flop with two jacks and held against Romero's ace-king. Suarez then catapulted into a massive chip lead when Tobias Leknes tried a move with a four-bet shove for 4,735,000 with ace-four, but Suarez called with ace-king and finished with two pair to bust the online legend in 13th place.