The final table is now set at the EPT Barcelona. German Giuseppe Pantaleo began Day 4 as chip leader and occupies the same position now that we’re down to the final eight players. Day 1b leader Luis Rufas entered the day fourth in chips but was eliminated in 10th place, for which he earned €50k. Also earning €50k was ninth place finisher Frenchman Candido Gonçalves, the last man eliminated on Day 4. Zachary Korik, the sole remaining Yank, could manage no higher than 13th place and €28k.
Final table play will get underway at noon local time, and the players/chip counts read as follows: Giuseppe Pantaleo (5.655m); Konstantin Puchkov (4.16m); Jesus Cortes Lizano (3.8m); Shander De Vries (3.12m); Kent Lundmark (3.025m); Thor Stang (1.29m); Georgios Skotadis (1.105m); Francesco Notaro (745k).
Elsewhere in Spain, Marvin Rettenmaier (another German) triumphed at the Spanish Poker Tour’s Grand Finale at the Gran Casino Costa Brava in Lloret del Mar earlier this week. The €3,200 buy-in attracted a field of 120, creating the largest prize pool in SPT history. Rettenmaier collected €110k for the win, with France’s Claire Renaut taking second and €60k.
In Malta, Simone Lombardo finally showed the Germans what’s what by beating out runner-up Matthias Fricke to take the European Masters of Poker (EMOP) of Malta.
Over at the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour, Day 1b saw 123 players buy-in, a little better than the 84 who began Day 1a. A combined group of around 90 Day 1 survivors will do battle on Saturday.
Across the pond, a 37-year old mortgage broker named Kwinsee Khoa Tran collected $179k for winning the 2010 Los Angeles Poker Open finale at the Commerce Casino. Although big names like Matt Affleck, Phil Laak and Sorel Mizzi all took part, they couldn’t read the fine print on Tran’s game.
Finally, Stanley Quinn is the proud possessor of a WSOP Circuit gold ring (not to mention $87k) after beating 245 other players to take the main event title at Havey’s resort in Lake Tahoe.
