The poker world has been abuzz with news of online tournaments over the recent weeks, but live poker is by no means dead either, with major tournaments still being held all around the world. Spain’s second largest city of Barcelona was abuzz with exactly that as the keluar sgp European Poker Tour stopped there, giving locals a chance to try their hand against the best in the world. The Main Event wrapped up at the end of November, and sitting alone at the final table was Kent Lundmark. Lundmark took home €825,000 for his win.
The PokerStars sponsored European Poker Tour consists of a number of different “stops” in beautiful cities around Europe. At each stop there are a number of tournaments, culminating in a main event, which are played out, filmed, and later shown on television. The EPT first kicked off in 2004 and has experienced great success both as poker tournaments and a television broadcast. This stop in Barcelona took place in the middle of the seventh season.
The tournament was held in the beautiful city of Barcelona, at the Casino Barcelona Annex at the Arts Hotel. While the cap of one thousand was not met, there was still a very healthy turnout with 758 entrants registering for the event, which had a buy-in of €5000 + 300. The tournament kicked off on the 22nd of November and ran through until the 27th, including both a Day 1A and a Day 1b, as has become traditional for the Main Events of these stops.
The eventual winner was a man by the name of Kent Lundmark. The Swedish pro feels very at home at the tournament poker table, with many cashes in live tournament events, including a second place finish in the Nordic Masters of Poker tournament in Stockholm earlier this year. That said, this win is easily his biggest live poker achievement, and the money he received for the first place finish makes up the large majority of his career winnings. The 22 year-old is the sixth Swedish player to hold an EPT title. We can be very sure that we’ll see more of him in the near future.
As play became heads-up, Lundmark was sitting opposite from Spanish native and soon-to-be runner-up Jesus Marquez Lizano. Often by the time just two players are left sitting at a final table one has amassed a significantly larger chip stack than the other, but in this tournament the players were nearly dead even and an intense battle began. It took an hour and twenty minutes, but eventually the chips all went in the middle and were shipped in Lundmark’s direction as his AQ held up against KJ, eliminating Lizano in second place for €525,000. Lundmark meanwhile walked away with his most prestigious finish yet and €825,000 or $1.1 Million in first place prize money.
We’re nearing the halfway mark of this season of the European Poker Tour, but if you fancy yourself to be a bit of a dab hand at poker, then you’re certainly not too late to register for one of the tournaments at any of the upcoming stops. If the cost of entry deters you slightly, you’ll do well to remember that the Tour is sponsored by PokerStars, and the site runs satellite tournaments very often for this very reason.
