Simon Brandstrom wins 2019 EPT Barcelona Main Event

The Swedish player took down the record-breaking event after a heads-up deal.

“MARTON PLAYED VERY GOOD. I PROBABLY DIDN'T PLAY MY A-GAME BUT THE CARDS CAME MY WAY."

The 2019 EPT Barcelona Main Event is in the books, with Sweden's Simon Brandstrom taking down the €1,290,166 first prize and the title after making a deal with runner-up Márton Czuczor. This year's Main Event generated 1,988 entries, which is the biggest-ever in an EPT Main Event.

The final day started with six players, and it only took 20 hands to get down to the heads-up play. Czuczor started extremely strong, sending Yunye Lu, Giovani Torre, and Diego Falcone to the rail in just a few hands.

At the beginning of the three-handed period, Portuguese Rui Sousa, Márton and Simon decided to take a look at the numbers, but they couldn't come to an agreement and sat back to the table to play it out. 

After some play, Brandstrom eventually busted Sousa. He first won a big hand against him after an unlucky run-out, which saw Sousa's two pair counterfeiting, and then finished him off, with pocket jacks against T-8 on an eight-high flop. Rui received a €607,400 paycheck for finishing 3rd.

Despite the unsuccessful negotiations in the three-handed play, the final two decided to discuss a deal once again, and they came to an agreement, which locked up €1.25 million for Czuczor, €1.21 million for Brandstrom and they left in €77,000 and the trophy to play for.

Even though he become the overwhelming chip-leader, Márton wasn't able to close out the tournament and couldn't avoid elimination. He first doubled up Simon in a huge full-house over full-house cooler and then couldn't win a big all-in with a straight against the open ender of Brandstrom.


Close but no cigar for the Hungarian

The final hand was a classic coin-flip, with Márton holding K-Q against the sixes of Simon. The latter managed to hold and the tournament was over.

While the Hungarian pro got unlucky in the heads-up play, taking home his biggest ever prize, which catapulted him to the number one spot on Hungary's All-time Money List seems like a nice consolation.

Simon also praised his opponent, while also acknowledging his run-good in his winner's interview: “I made a comeback on Day 1 and was down to 12k and spun it up a bit. And last night I was down to nine bigs with 15 players left and made a big rush from there, ended up as the chip leader.”

“Marton played very good. I probably didn't play my A-Game but the cards came my way," he added.

Final table results

 

Place Winner Country Prize (in EUR) Prize (in USD)
1 Simon Brandstrom Sweden €1,290,166* $1,417,899
2 Marton Czuczor Hungary €1,253,234* $1,377,310
3 Rui Sousa Portugal 607,400 $667,536
4 Diego Falcone Brazil 436,760 $480,001
5 Giovani Torre Portugal 364,660 $400,763
6 Yunye Lu China 295,520 $324,778
7 Johan Storakers Sweden 226,490 $248,914
8 Pasquale Braco Italy 159,580 $175,379
9 Kully Sidhu United Kingdom 121,760 $133,815