EPT Barcelona: Lingham, Wilson and Roiter among host of early winners
As ever on the European Poker Tour, the Main Event is far from the only tournament taking place. Indeed, this year’s full schedule has 79 events, including qualifiers, which means another huge batch of Spadie trophies will be heading across the world.
Twelve of those tournaments are already in the books, with a number of familiar faces rising to the top of characteristically buoyant fields.
The biggest single prize of the week so far went to American tech entrepreneur Vinny Lingham, who won the €30,000 Super High Roller Warm-Up event for €306,600.
Based on the standards of a cryptocurrency mogul, that’s chump change. But Lingham has never previously finished in top spot in a documented poker tournament, and his winner’s smile suggests that this means a good deal to him.
A delighted Vinny Lingham clutches his first trophy
Lingham didn’t have it easy. From a field of superstars, he defeated Finnish tournament veteran Eelis Parssinen heads up, with Enrico Camosci third.
OTHER BIG NAMES PICK UP WINS
The other big buy-in events to conclude already ended with trophies in the hands of Brock Wilson and Klemens Roiter. Those well-known pros won the €20K and €25K Single Day NLH events taking place on Thursday and Friday, respectively, and added €233,556 and €266,030 to their coffers.
Roiter actually chopped his event heads-up with Estonia’s Ottomar Ladva, with Ladva taking marginally more money. But Roiter closed it out heads-up, and extends his lead at the top of the PokerStars Live League “High” division.
Brock Wilson, right, beat Niklas Astedt, among others, en route to another Barcelona win
With the PokerStars Open Main Event still ongoing at time of writing, the two other biggest events in terms of turnout were the €825 PokerStars Open Cup and the new €550 NLH In-the-Money at 180,000.
NEW FORMAT SUCCESS
Panagiotis Mavritsakis beat a field of 2,004 entries in the first of those to record a €193,120 success. That was a first Spadie for the Dublin-based Greek player, who also went deep in the Main Event in Barcelona in 2024.
France’s Sacha Cohen won €52,000 in the In-the-Money at 180,000 tournament, whose field of 572 entries suggested the new format appeals to the EPT player base.
The format is pretty simple: players needed to turn their 30,000 starting stack into 180,000, which they then bagged and took to Day 2. Everyone reaching the landmark amount was already in the money, with Day 2 then playing down to a winner as usual.
The tournament mimics the format of most qualifier events, which now set a target chip amount to win a seat in a bigger event. It essentially removes a bubble and speeds up play, and early indications are that the tournament was a success. PokerStars Ambassador Maria Konnikova finished second behind Cohen.
Sacha Cohen was the first winner of the new format In the Money at 180K tournament
Elsewhere, Italian pro Youness Barakat won the third Spadies of his career when he took down the €2,100 Hyper Turbo Freezeout, while Jamie Dwan, a breakout star at the World Series this year, has already made three final tables on his return to European soil.
Dwan, who we met and interviewed in Monte Carlo in May 2024, has a third, fourth and fifth-placed finish already in Barcelona, and is currently riding high in the $100K Super High Roller too.
See full results from across the EPT Barcelona festival
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