Online qualifier takes down EPT Main Event

Poland's Piotr Nurzynski books life-changing score in Casino Barcelona.

“I can't believe it ... it struck me. wow. I ran really really well. I made two huge mistakes today and I was thinking I can't win it. But it's amazing, it's hard to say something now,"

The 15th EPT Barcelona Main Event generated a record-breaking 1,931 entries, who all wanted to grab their share of the €9,365,350 prize pool. However, all of the top players fell before the finals, which were filled with lesser-known players. The official final table of eight was made up of two Irish, an Estonian, two Portuguese, a Bulgarian, a Chinese and a Polish player.

Of the high-profile pros, John Juanda came closest to victory, but he had to settle for 15th place, failing to become the second two-time champion of the series.

Ireland's Patrick Clarke was the first player to bust from the final table, he finished 8th for €155,000. Clarke was followed by the fellow Irish player, Mark Buckley, who earned €220,000, while Estonia's Matthias Tikerpe took home €287,500 for finishing 6th. Portugal's Rodrigo Carmo walked away with €354,200.

At this point, the remaining four players agreed on a deal. After the deal was made, the four participants returned to the table to play for the remaining €180,000, the €30,000 Platinum Pass to the Players NL Hold’em Championship, and the trophy.

The next player to leave his seat was Pedro Marques, who finished 4th for €698,369, which is a €174,000 increase compared to the original payout of €424K.

Pedro was followed by 2015 Deauville champion, Ognyan Dimov, who also made a nice extra thanks to the deal and picked up €725,621 at the cage. (the original payout was €590,000)

Online qualifier, Piotr Nurzynski, and self-proclaimed recreational player Haoxiang Wang started the heads-up with the latter holding an overwhelming lead.

However, an early double up with pocket kings helped Nurzynski closen the gap and he soon took over the lead. The chips went back-and-forth for a while, but a jacks vs nines hand gave Piotr a huge lead and he was able to close down the tournament shortly after.

Runner-up Haoxiang Wang

The Polish player walked away with €1,037,109, the Platinum Pass, and the trophy, while Wang made €1,023,701.

Final results