Home / Poker News August 2012 / EPT Barcelona €10k High Roller – Laurent Polito Wins
EPT Barcelona €10k High Roller – Laurent Polito Wins
Posted by: James Carter. - Mon, 2012-08-27 14:30
3 full days of action went into the EPT Barcelona’s €10k High Roller, but at the end of it all, a winner did emerge. Laurent Pulito of France survived a starting field of 111 players to strike a 2-way deal at the top with Alex Bilokur and to eventually take home the title, together with the €270.2k top prize.
The first day of the event saw 101 players pony up the sizeable buy-in. 10 players opted to re-buy after their eliminations, so the prize-pool shot past the €1 million mark by a comfortable €87k.
The day 1 field was rife with ‘name’ players like
PokerStars’ Bertrand Grospellier, Pius Heinz, Jason Mercier, Dan Smith and Scott Seiver. Day 1 was a relatively short affair, because organizers wanted to give players a fair chance to attend the Real Madrid-Barcelona match that was taking place that day.
76 players returned on Day 2, looking to play past the money bubble. Given that the field had to make up for the action they had skipped the previous day, it was clear from the beginning that it would be a long day of green felt struggles indeed.
Scores of pros were eliminated on day 2, among them Peter Jetten, Bryn Kenney and Mike Watson.
Angel Guillen also bit the dust, together with Jason Mercier, who busted out only a few hands short of the money. Andrew Lichtenberger was the one responsible for his elimination. The hand which resulted in Mercier’s elimination was a classic coin flip of pocket 9s losing out to As,Qs.
With the money bubble set for 13th place, JC Alvarado’s elimination in 14th sprung the trigger. The bubble burst relatively fast, with Grzegorz Derkowski biting the dust within a few hands of Alvarado’s elimination.
Day 3 of the event saw the top three players make it to the 3-handed stage of the event. Tobias Reikenmaier’s elimination in 3rd place set up the heads-up bout between Bilokur and Polito. Following a two way deal, Polito took down the title after his pocket Qs bested his opponent’s pocket 9s.
