Thomas Eychenne Wins EPT Barcelona Main Event for Seven-Figure Score

A packed Casino Barcelona played host to one of the best final tables of recent EPT history as Thomas Eychenne became champion for over $1.4m. The Catalan city of culture saw over 2,000 players battle to a winner, with other players such as Anton Suarez and Marc Foggin close to glory after making the final table.

* after heads-up deal.

PokerStars Event Packs Room Again

With a massive 2,045 entries, a prize pool of just over $10 million awaited 304 players, with stars of the felt such as Juha Helppi (301^st) helping themselves to a min-cash worth $9,950. By the time the final eight gathered at the last table, Cesar Garcia was short on chips. He needed a way to put himself back in contention and thought he’d found it when his shove with ace-jack was called by Suarez with ace-ten, but a board of A-9-3-7-T broke the Spanish player’s heart on the river, sending him home with $201,000.

Marc Foggin had been a major player in the event but he took was eliminated in unfortunate circumstances soon after Garcia left. All-in with ace-king, Foggin saw that his caller, Tomasz Brzezinski had the same hand, but crucially with a different suited ace. The Polish player’s spades came in after two on the flop were joined by another on the turn and river to runner-runner bust Foggin for $261,235 in seventh place.

Coming back the next day, Sebastian Ionita led the field but with his stack of 59 big blinds not too far ahead of the shortest stack, Brzezinski’s 31-big-blind total, everyone had a great shot at glory. It was Anton Suarez who proceeded to exit first, cashing for $339,620 in sixth place. On a board showing T-5-3-Q-5, Surez bet 2.5 million chips, before Thomas Eychenne put his opponent all-in. Eventually, Suarez called with ace-queen for two pair but Eychenne turned over five-four for a straight draw on the turn that turned into a winning hand of trips on the river.

Zaffagnini Busted Before Heads-Up

With five players left, it was the turn of Julian Lozano to bust, missing out for $441,250 as he became the victim of the overnight leader. The Romanian Ionita raised with pocket eights and felt priced in to call off the shove of Lozano with king-four of diamonds. The board was no help to the at-risk Colombian, who departed just outside the final four.

The overnight short stack, Polish player Tomasz Brzezinski climbed the ladder brilliantly but bowed out in fourth place for $574,100. All-in and at-risk pre-flop with ace-nine offsuit, he was way behind Umberto Zaffagnini’s pocket tens. The Italian held all the cards and a flop of J-T-8 gave him a set, albeit offering the Polish pro hope with an open-ended straight draw. That fell short after another jack on the turn confirmed a winning full house for Zaffagnini, however.

The Italian was flying high but in No Limit Hold’em, it only takes two hands to turn you from chip leader to the latest victim and while Zaffagnini wasn’t the leader, he wasn’t far off Ionita’s stack. Eychenne bounced off the canvas at the Italian’s expense and when Zaffagnini shoved with pocket fives, the Frenchman called it off with the bigger stack and ace-jack. A runout of K-T-8-7-Q was cruel, giving Eychenne a Broadway straight and sending Zaffagnini home with a score of $746,750.

Deal Decides the Drama, Eychenne Claims Title

“When you can’t win and you end up second, second, it gets mental at some point.”

Heads-up, the stacks were very close, with Ionita in a marginal lead with 32.3 million to Eychenne’s 29m. Chopping up the prizepool with €100,000 to one side for the winner, the two men played on for a short time, as Eychenne rivered a couple of hands to take a slim lead into the final hand.

At the death, Ionita committed his stack pre-flop with ace-six, and was quickly called by Eychenne with ace-king of club, which held through the 9-5-3-Q-K board to prevail, seeing the French player celebrate wildly with his rail. Claiming $1,416,650 as the winner, Eychenne shook the hand of Ionita, who won $1,300,250 as runner-up.

“It feels just amazing – it’s my first tournament win!” said a delighted Eychenne after the final hand. “I obviously didn’t expect to win when entering a 2,000-player field. It’s tough to put words on such emotions. It’s incredible,”

The French player admitted that ‘for many years’, he had been dreaming of a victory like this on the European Poker Tour and that ability to visualize the win was key.

“I knew it would come at some point,” he said. “It was just a matter of time. My work paid off today. Obviously, I was very lucky, but it’s a great accomplishment. When you can’t win and you end up second, second, it gets mental at some point. I think from now on I will play with less pressure.”

Photographs courtesy of the European Poker Tour/PokerStars.