EPT Celebrates 20th Anniversary With Huge Barcelona Series

The 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona festival marked the 20th anniversary of the tour, which debuted in the same Spanish city back in 2004. That first go-round had six events on offer, with the largest being the €1,000 main event which drew 229 entries. Alexander Stevic earned $98,000 as the first-ever EPT champion.

For comparison’s sake, this year’s EPT Barcelona main event sported a €5,300 buy-in and attracted 1,975 entries, with eventual champion Stephen Song banking more than $1.4 million for the win.

The 2024 festival featured 41 official events, which collectively drew over 21,300 entries. All told, nearly $55.3 million in total prize money was awarded during the series, with 15 events sporting prize pools worth seven figures or higher.

Song Hits The Right Notes In Main Event

At just 29 years of age, Stephen Song had already amassed a sizable tournament poker hardware collection before making his way to the Northeastern coast of Spain. The professional player from Greenwich, Connecticut now has to make room next to his World Series of Poker bracelet and WPT Prime Championship trophy for the EPT Barcelona main event golden spade he secured after topping the 1,975-entry turnout in the main event, which is the fourth-largest turnout for any main event in the tour’s history.

Song earned a career-best payday of $1,432,328 for the win, which marked his 13th recorded tournament title. He now has more than $8.1 million in lifetime earnings to his name.

The top 287 finishers earned a share of the prize pool in this event, which ended up being worth more than $10.6 million when reckoned in US dollars. After two starting flights and five more days of combined-field action, just six players remained heading into the final day of play.

Rania Nasreddine, who finished third in the EPT Monte Carlo main event earlier this year, scored the first knockout of the final day. Her A-K held against the Q-J suited of Boris Kuzmanovic (6th – $340,659) to narrow the field to five.

David Coleman was the next to fall. The American poker pro flopped top pair with J 9, but was unable to catch up against the pocket queens of chip leader Andrew Hulme. Coleman earned $442,835 as the fifth-place finisher, his fourth-largest score yet.

This was the 21st final-table finish of the year for Coleman. It brought his POY point total to 8,300, which is good for second place in the overall standings, sponsored by Global Poker. He now trails leader Adrian Mateos (8,784 points) by just 484 points entering the final quarter of the year.

A battle of the blinds saw Nasreddine left on fumes. Marius-Catalin Pertea shoved from the small blind with 9-8 and Nasreddine called with A-K. The flop and turn were safe for Nasreddine, but a nine on the river gave Pertea the double-up and left Nasreddine with fewer than three big blinds, which didn’t last long. Nasreddine picked up $575,646 for fourth place. She now has more than $1.7 million in lifetime earnings, with the majority of that coming from her back-to-back EPT main event final table showings this year.

Song was the clear chip leader heading into three-handed play. That gap was closed considerably, though, when Hulme’s A 6 outraced Marius-Catalin Pertea’s pocket fives. A six on the river sent Pertea, who qualified for this tournament online for just $55, packing in third place for $748,307. This was far and away the largest score yet for the Romanian.

Heads-up play began with Song holding a slight lead. The two struck a deal to redistribute the remaining prize money, locking up $1,293,832 for Hulme and $1,369,281 for Song while leaving the title and $63,048 to play for.

Song was able to get a big bluff through to extend his lead. In the final hand, he shoved from the button with A 7 and Hulme called off his last nine or so big blinds with pocket eights. The board came down 6 5 3 4 9 and Song turned a seven-high straight to win the pot and the title.

Hulme walked away with the payout he negotiated for in the deal. This was the largest score yet for the player from the UK, topping the $350,000 he earned as the 18th-place finisher in the 2023 WSOP main event.

Sylvain Berthelot Survives Field Of 7,138 In Estrellas Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event
The largest field of the festival came in the Estrellas Poker Tour Barcelona €1,100 no-limit hold’em main event that kicked off the series. It drew 7,138 total entries, building a prize pool of nearly $7.6 million.

After eight starting flights and three more days of action, that sea of players was narrowed down to a single champion in France’s Sylvain Berthelot. He walked away with $554,139 in prize money for the win, which was far and away his best live tournament score.

With just three remaining, Berthelot struck a deal with Spain’s Santiago Nadal and two-time bracelet winner Martin Zamani that redistributed most of the remaining prize pool, leaving $49,914 and the title to play for. Zamani was the chip leader at the time, and locked up the largest guaranteed payday of $514,208. He ultimately finished third, though, while Santiago survived to heads-up play. Santiago then ran the nut straight into the nut flush of Berthelot to hit the rail in second place for $437,924.

Zamani increased his career tournament earnings to over $6.5 million with this performance, while Nadal’s lifetime haul grew to nearly $1.7 million.

Big Names Score Big Wins During High-Stakes Schedule

This festival featured 12 events with buy-ins of five figures or higher (nearly 30 percent of the offerings for the series). Those dozen events accounted for nearly $20 million in prize money.

With 88 entries, the €10,200 mystery bounty had $947,496 in total prize money up for grabs. The last bounty was captured by Boris Angelov, who earned $205,794 from the main prize pool. The 2024 WSOP main event fifth-place finisher now has more than $4.1 million in recorded scores to his name. He also climbed to 25th place in the POY standings thanks to this victory.

Next up was the €12,300 bounty tournament, which attracted 62 entries by the end of registration. Steve O’Dwyer came away with the trophy, earning $235,009 for the win. The Ireland resident now has nearly $45 million in recorded tournament earnings after this latest victory.

Norway’s Kayhan Mokri put on a show this series. He first took down the €20,000 no-limit hold’em high roller, topping a field of 47 entries to earn $288,207. Less than a week later, he successfully defended his title in the €100,000 buy-in super high roller, outlasting the 41-entry field to earn $1,523,386. Mokri now has more than $5.3 million in career tournament earnings, with nearly 44 percent of that total coming from his back-to-back wins in this tournament.

Seth Davies, just over a week removed from taking down the Super High Roller Bowl IX, finished second for $993,450.

With 46 entries, the €25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em high roller had over $1.2 million in prize money to pay out amongst its top six finishers. When the dust settled it was American poker pro Byron Kaverman who had gathered all of the chips. Kaverman walked away with $422,977 and the trophy, growing his lifetime earnings to more than $20.6 million in the process.

Jean Noel Thorel extended his lead on France’s all-time tournament poker earnings leaderboard with a win in the €30,000 buy-in high roller. Thorel topped the field of 54 entries to pocket $568,731 and the trophy. He now has $20.4 million in lifetime cashes under his belt, or more than $5 million more than the second-ranked player on the French money list, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier ($15.2 million).

The second-largest buy-in of the series was the €50,000 high roller. The prize pool ended up at roughly $1.4 million thanks to 26 entries. The event concluded after a deal that saw Leonard Maue declared the winner. The German earned $425,273 and the title.

Ottomar Ladva beat out a field of 60 entries in the next €25,000 buy-in tournament on the schedule. The Estonian earned a career-best payday of $487,734 as the champion.
Poker triple crown winner Mike Watson continued his strong 2024 performance by taking down a €10,300 buy-in no-limit hold’em high roller. The 40-year-old Canadian poker pro outlasted a field of 431 entries to earn $660,478 and 1,800 POY points.

This score brought Watson’s total to 7,564 points, which is currently good for third place on this year’s POY leaderboard. His POY earnings for 2024 now exceed $7.4 million.

There were three more €10,000 buy-in events that ran. Gergo Nagy took down the pot-limit Omaha tournament, earning $298,146 as the champion. The penultimate high roller of the series saw Erik Bauer best 48 entries to earn $168,054. The final five-figure buy-in also featured no-limit hold’em as the game. Jeremie Zouari bested a smaller field, securing $118,992 for the win. ♠

*Photo by PokerStars / Danny Maxwell