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. 

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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