The European Poker Tour (EPT) crowned a new champion earlier this morning as Martin Schleich took home the EPT Barcelona crown. It took the German until 3:30am local time to defeat his closest challenger Dragan Kostic and with it came the first prize of €850,000. Kostic was aiming to become the first Spanish player to triumph on home soil. It was to no avail as Schleich’s play was too much for everyone in the field. That included Eugene Katchalov who was aiming to become only the fifth player to earn poker’s Triple Crown and the third this year after Jake Cody and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier bagged one back at the WSOP.
Katchalov bowed out in third place with the final table finishing as follows:
1. Martin Schleich, Germany, €850,000
2. Dragan Kostic, Spain, €532,000
3. Eugene Katchalov, Ukraine, €315,000
4. Raul Mestre, Spain, €244,000
5. Tomeu Gomila, Spain, €185,000
6. Saar Wilf, Israel, €145,000
7. Juan Manuel Perez, Spain, €105,000
8. Isabel Baltazar, France, €73,000.
Of the record 811 that turned up to play at the latest stop on the tour, perhaps the most interesting was the attendance of one international footballer of note. Gerard Pique, defender for FC Barcelona was, according to a video posted at this link, playing at the recent stop. His run of titles of the past two years has included a World Cup, two La Liga’s, and a Champions League. He wasn’t able to carry that on in the €5,000 NLHE Turbo satellite event. Third place was enough to earn him €40,000 though. How A-Rod wishes FC Barcelona had a baseball side.
