Lundmark Hits Mark at EPT Barcelona

Kent Lundmark became the champion of the biggest poker tournament ever held in Spain at the end of November when he took down the PokerStars €5,300 buy-in European Poker Tour main event in Barcelona for a healthy payday of €825,000. The 22-year-old topped a massive field of 758 players to become the sixth Swedish EPT champion.
Being a Swede, Lundmark was one of the minority groups in attendance. The host country, Spain, dominated the field with 16 percent of the players, followed by France and Italy with 9 percent each. Germany followed suit with 8 percent, and although usually quite popular stateside, only 5 percent of the field was American. However there was a reason for this — turkey. This year’s EPT Barcelona fell slap bang in the middle of the Thanksgiving holidays. Despite this, the event attracted 280 more players than last year, creating a prize pool of €3,790,000.
Defending champion Carter Phillips joined 262 players on day 1A but at the end of the day, the field had been sliced down to 137, and Phillips was not one of those returning. Day 1B was crammed to the brim with 495 players, but that too decreased dramatically, to 275, by close of play.
It was one of the very few Americans taking part who made the most impact on day 2. Bryn Kenney topped a very jubilant field heading into day 3; each of the 112 players returning were guaranteed at least €7,500. However, if they wanted to get to the more serious end of the prize pool, it wasn’t going to be easy, not even for Kenney.
German Resilience
While big names hurtled towards the rail, German PokerStars qualifier Giuseppe Pantaleo did the exact opposite. Twenty-two-year-old Pantaleo, who won the Sunday Warm-Up in 2010, started the day with 622,500 in chips and ended it with an enormous 2.3 million as chip leader. His final lump sum came from Thomas Finneran when he called the Irishman’s all in with A-8 versus A-7 respectively. An eight dropped on the river and sent Finneran home in 25th place for €17,000, closing play for the day.
Before this however, the day saw many major exchanges of chips, and this included the chip-leading stack of Bryn Kenney. The American had a short-stacked Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier to his left, and things were only going to get more difficult when the Frenchman doubled his ammo, but up to that point Kenney had recovered successfully from quite a few early hits to his stack. That was until he ran head-first into Alessandro Longobardi’s rivered straight. This dropped Kenney’s stack to the 350,000 mark, but he wasn’t going to take it lying down. With plenty of chips in the middle and the action reaching the river on a board showing 8♠ 4♣ 2♠ 10♥ 5♣ Kenney bet 72,000 and Marco Bognanni raised it up to 186,000. Kenney made the call and showed 8♥ 7♥ to scoop the pot away from a bluffing Bognanni and his J-3.
Later in the day however, Kenney made a bluff of his own which cost him his tournament life as after moving all in with a missed flush draw, Thor Stang called with top pair, sending the young pro out of the event in 32nd place for €17,000.
Others who hit the rail throughout day 3 were Carlos Mortensen, Leo Margets, EPT Grand Final winner Nicolas Chouity, Per Linde, and Roberto Romanello, plus Team PokerStars Pro members Alex Gomes, Ruben Visser, Leo Fernandez, Matthias de Meulder, and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (at the hands of Jesus Cortes Lizano). The top 10 at end of play featured both ElkY and Kenney’s destroyers and was mostly made up of Italians and Spaniards, but it was one German who was continuously creating the most havoc.
Giuseppe Pantaleo started day 4 of the event in the lead, and ended it the same way. He had to make it through 16 players to get to the final table, and did so with ease, as did 2010 World Series of Poker bracelet winner Konstantin Puchkov. Of the 16 who hit the rail however were two of the most familiar names remaining at the start of the day, PokerStars qualifiers Kristoffer Thorsson and Dominik Nitsche. There was soon going to be a new name in the headlines.
The 2010 EPT Barcelona final table comprised:
Seat 1 Jesus Marquez Lizano 3,800,000
Seat 2 Kent Lundmark 3,025,000
Seat 3 Konstantin Puchkov 4,160,000
Seat 4 Shander De Vries 3,120,000
Seat 5 Giuseppe Pantaleo 5,655,000
Seat 6 Francesco Notaro 745,000
Seat 7 Thor Stang 1,290,000
Seat 8 Georgios Skotadis 1,105,000

Final Bullfight
Things kicked off quickly on the final day with two players busting early, one after the other. Italy’s Francesco Notaro bet 200,000 and was three-bet to 570,000 by Lizano. Notaro moved all in for 1,370,000 and after a moment Lizano made the call. Lizano’s A-Q was behind Notaro’s A-K but a queen was dealt on the river to make Notaro the first casualty of the final day. In the very next hand Thor Stang’s pocket jacks beat Georgios Skotadis’ pocket tens and sent him spinning out of the event in seventh place. Stang was next to go however as his K-Q could not better Lundmark’s pocket fives.
Pantaleo who had held the chip lead going into the last two days experienced a painful final table, which saw the trophy move further and further out of his reach as play progressed. He appeared to be highly frustrated early on in the day after a big pot against Lizano. The two players checked a flop of Q♠ 6♣ 2♣ and the turn was dealt the Q♣. Lizano bet 230,000 from the big blind and Pantaleo called from the button. The river was the 2♥ and Lizano bet 330,000. After a few moments of thought Pantaleo raised it up to 790,000, sending Lizano into the tank. Eventually, the Spaniard called and Pantaleo instantly, and perhaps prematurely, mucked his cards. Lizano flipped over jack-high and took down the pot, but when Pantaleo saw his cards, horror filled every inch of his face.
Swede Swipes Lead
After a few more ups and downs, Pantaleo was finally put out of his misery when Kent Lundmark called his 3,095,000 all-in with pocket queens which stayed ahead of Pantaleo’s A-J. Lundmark then set his sights on Shander de Vries. De Vries moved all in for his last 122,000 in chips with Q♦ 8♠ and was called by Lundmark who held A♣ Q♠. The flop brought an interesting 10♣ 7♥ 6♦ but de Vries hopes ended on the blank turn and river and he made his exit in fourth place.
After this, Lizano put a stop to Lundberg, making him the short stack threehanded. Lundberg four-bet all in with A-2 and was called by Lizano and his pocket queens, which won the massive pot, doubling up the local hero. Lizano then took a chunk of chips from Russian Konstantin Puchkov but Lundmark finished Puchkov off, putting himself back in the game. Puchkov kept his final hand, pocket kings, quiet, electing to call Lundmark’s preflop bet of 245,000. The flop fell J♠ 7♣ 3♠ and Lundmark bet 245,000 again from the button. This time Puchkov check-raised to 700,000 from the small blind, triggering Lundmark to move all in. Puchkov called and saw that his K♦ K♥ were up against the middle pair and flush draw of Lundmark who held 7♠ 6♠. The turn was the 10♦ but the river was the K♠ which although gave Puchkov a set, meant Lundmark made his flush.
Lundmark’s final obstacle was Spain’s Jesus Marquez Lizano as the two went head-to-head for the last stand with 12 million in chips each. The ultimate hand of the event came one hour and 20 minutes into the heads up. It was A-Q for Lundmark versus Lizano’s K-J and an ace on the river sealed the deal, making the Swede the EPT’s newest champion.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Lundmark. “This is one of the biggest tournaments you can win in poker. I’ve been running good all tournament, I was very lucky. In the heads up, I just kept getting good cards. I always felt in control.”
Lizano’s runner-up finish created a new record for Spanish players on the EPT, with the previous record belonging to Santiago Terrazas who finished third at the same event in season six. He received €525,000, while Lundmark walked away with the lion’s share, the title, the trophy, and plenty of bragging rights.
The final table payouts were:
First Kent Lundmark (Sweden) €825,000
Second Jesus Cortes Lizano (Spain) €525,000
Third Konstantin Puchkov (Russia) €300,000
Fourth Shander De Vries (Holland) €222,000
Fifth Giuseppe Pantaleo (Germany) €170,000
Sixth Thor Stang (Norway) €130,000
Seventh Georgios Skotadis (Greece) €90,000
Eighth Francesco Notaro (Italy) €70,000