EPT Barcelona: Indian-Origin Kully Sidhu & Balakrishna Patur Make Deep Run in Main Event, Simon Brandstorm Leads Final 6

Kully Sidhu, Balakrishna Patur score in EPT Barcelona Main Event, Simon Brandstrom leads final 6
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  • Namita Ghosh September 1, 2019
  • 3 Minutes Read

The record-smashing 2019 European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona €5,300 Main Event is a day away from going down the history books. Day 5 brought the 16 remaining players back to the felts, and after six levels of play, only six were left in the running to win the title and the life-changing €1,659,000 reserved for the champion!

Entering the final day of play in the chip lead will be Sweden’s Simon Brandstrom who carries with him a stack of 18,500,000 (74 BBs) to the final table. The 37-year-old who used to be called Simon Persson is already guaranteed to take home a career-best score in the event since all the six survivors have locked in €295,520 already. Brandstrom`s top career score before this deep run was €270,000 that he won from his title win of the 2019 WPTDeepStacks Barcelona in March this year.

There was sizeable Indian participation in the Main Event and while Young Gun Sahil Chuttani`s 41st place finish on Day 4 was the deepest run for the team, there were two Indian-origin players, U.K`s Kully Sidhu and New Jersey-based Balakrishna Patur who were among the 16 finalists that made it through to Day 5.

Patur, who is a quant analyst, was incidentally playing his first-ever EPT tournament and did exceptionally well on his maiden run, finishing 11th for €101,820 (~₹80.42 Lakhs). The more experienced Sidhu did relatively better, finishing ninth for €121,760 (~₹96.17 Lakhs).

Another event that is fast approaching the finish line is the €10,300 EPT Barcelona High Roller. With 22 late registrations on Day 2, the High Roller managed to register a field of 540 entries, and only 26 players were able to bag a stack for Day 3 with Lander Lijo (2,050,000) bagging the overnight chip lead.

Day 6 of the Main Event begins at 12 PM (local time) today and will continue till a new EPT champion is crowned. Including the High Roller, there is also the €550 NLHE, €2,200NLHE Deepstack and the €25,000 NLHE that will play down to a winner today.

The series closes out tomorrow, and there are four events lined up today, namely, the €550 NLHE, €10,200 NLHE 6-Handed, €3,200 6-Handed and the €1,100 NLHE Super Hyper Turbo.

 

Day 5 Recap

The day began with 16 hopefuls, and six 90-minute levels later, only six players were left standing.

Ending his day as the biggest stack was Sweden’s Simon Brandstrom (18,500,000 – 74 BBs). Brandstrom had entered Day 5 as the third shortest stack and had a tough time at the felts in the initial few levels. His fortunes, however, changed after he won a big pot off Shannon Shorr with his pocket aces dominating the latter’s pocket queens.

Brandstrom went on a consolidation drive after that, and one of his prominent adversaries was the Indian-origin player Balakrishna Patur. Patur who had wreaked havoc on the felts on Day 4 was chip leading through the early levels on Day 5. He lost two big pots in a row to Brandstrom, and the duo clashed again right after the third break. This time Brandstrom finished Patur off, yet again holding pocket aces to dominate Patur’s jack-ten, eliminating the latter in 11th place (€101,820 – ₹80.42 Lakhs).

Balakrishna Patur
Balakrishna Patur

€2,200 EPT National High Roller champion Alexander Ivarsson (10th for €101,820), Shannon Shorr (15th for €81,130) and Felipe Saigado (16th for €71,400) were the other notables who failed to make it to the final table.

Brandstrom entered the final table as chip leader holding 14,770,000 in chips, comfortably ahead of his next closest competitors Yunye Lu (9,375,000) and Marton Czuczor (8,445,000).

 

Final Table Chip Counts

  1. Simon Brandstrom – 14,770,000
  2. Yunye Lu – 9,375,000
  3. Marton Czuczor – 8,445,000
  4. Giovani Torre – 8,175,000
  5. Rui Sousa – 7,080,000
  6. Johan Storakers – 5,625,000
  7. Pasquale Braco – 2,595,000
  8. Diego Falcone – 2,135,000
  9. Kully Sidhu – 1,425,000

Final Table Recap

Minutes into the final table, Rui Sousa eliminated Indian-origin player Kully Sidhu (9th for €121,760) and Day 3 chip leader Pasquale Braco (8th for €159,580) at the same time. Sidhu, who was sporting the shortest stack when the final table began, moved all-in from the button with ace-five. Small blind Braco shoved all-in as well with ace-queen and Sousa who held pocket jacks made the call. The board brought its fair share of drama as an ace on the flop improved Sidhu and Braco, but a jack on the river won Sousa the pot eliminating both Sidhu and Braco.

Kully Sidhu finishes 9th in EPT Barcelona Main Event
Kully Sidhu

Not too long after that, Sweden’s poker legend Johan Storakers (7th for €226,490) ran his pocket queens into Brandstrom’s ace-ten. The latter flopped an ace and further clipped a seven on the rundown to scoop the pot, ending Storakers’ run in the tournament.

Storakers turned out to be the last elimination of the day, and at the end of the play, Sweden’s Simon Brandstrom (18,500,000 – 74 BBs), Hungary’s Marton Czuczor (14,450,000 – 58 BBs) and Portugal’s Rui Sousa (9,100,000 – 36BBs) were the top three stacks in the fray.

Simon Brandstrom leads the final 6 in the EPT Barcelona Main Event
Simon Brandstrom leads the final 6 in the EPT Barcelona Main Event

Final Day Chip Counts

  1. Simon Brandstrom – 18,500,000
  2. Marton Czuczor – 14,450,000
  3. Rui Sousa – 9,100,000
  4. Diego Falcone – 8,600,000
  5. Yunye Lu – 4,500,000
  6. Giovani Torre – 4,450,000

Content & Images Courtesy: PokerNews

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