EPT Barcelona: Simon Brandstrom Conquers Record-Breaking Main Event to Win €1,290,166

Back in March, Simon Brandstrom (cover image) had won the WPTDeepStacks €1,500 Barcelona Main Event, a win that shot him to the top of the WPTDS Europe Leaderboard and saw him walk away as the ‘Player of the Year’ for the WPTDS Europe Season XVII. Brandstrom has now made another glittering addition to his poker resume by topping a record-breaking field in the €5,300 Main Event at European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona – one of the most prestigious tournament stops in the sport!

Brandstorm squared off with Marton Czuczor heads-up, and the duo struck an ICM deal that made them both a millionaire – Brandstrom securing €1,212,706, and Czuczor locking up €1,253,234, leaving the title and €77,460 on the table to play for. It took another three hours of intense heads-up play before Brandstrom came out on top. He took home an impressive €1,290,166 becoming the 11th player from Sweden to win the EPT Main Event trophy.

“Yeah, for sure!” Brandstrom said when asked by Joe Stapleton after the event if he was ready to become a legend.

“I made a comeback on Day 1 and was down to 12K and spun it up a bit. And last night I was down to nine bigs with 15 players left and made a big rush from there, ended up as the chip leader,” Brandstrom recounted, “Marton played very good. I probably didn’t play my A-Game but the cards came my way.”

This was a historic Main Event and a record-breaking one as well. With 1,988 entries, this was the largest-ever recorded field in an EPT Barcelona Main Event, well past last year’s turnout of 1,931 entries.

Team India in the EPT Barcelona Main Event

Poker is booming in India, and an ever-increasing number of Indian players are venturing out to play international tournaments. Even at the EPT Barcelona, we saw a large Indian group in attendance, and many of them jumped in to play the Main Event.

We counted at least eight Indian players who had made it to Day 2 – not counting the numerous Indian-origin players. Four among them led by Young Gun Sahil Chuttani successfully crossed the money line. Chuttani, in fact, toppled his own personal-best record from earlier this month with a 41st place finish here for ₹20.25 Lakhs.

Besides Chuttani, three other Indians posted scores in the Main Event. Sumit Asrani (291st for €8,390 – ₹6.69 Lakhs) was the first Indian to finish ITM on Day 3, while Raman Gujral (73rd for €17,160 – ₹13.59 Lakhs) and Kunal Punjwani (99th for €14,750 – ₹11.68 Lakhs) hit the rail on Day 4.

The breakout performance at the series was delivered by another young and rising star Jai’ Joey’ Saha, who had finished seventh in the €1,100 EPT National for a career-best ₹76.44 Lakhs!

Team India Cashes in the EPT Barcelona Main Event

The massive numbers helped generate an equally impressive €9,641,800 prize pool. The top 296 spots were paid with a min-cash worth €8,390.

Alongside the Indian players were quite a few Indian-origin pros from various parts of the world, and several among them made a deep run in the Main Event. Standout performances came from Ajay Chabra (178th for €11,090) and more notably Kully Sidhu (9th for €121,760 – ₹96.17 Lakhs) and Balakrishna Patur (11th for €101,820 – ₹80.42 Lakhs).

Among the other prominent players who cashed the Main Event were partypoker pro Isaac Haxton (18th for €61,710), Markku Koplimaa (28th for €36,550), Day 2 chip leader Simon Mattsson (39th for €31,040), Timothy Adams (43rd for €25,650), Aymon Hata (62nd for €20,340), Bart Lybaert (172nd for €11,090) and Robert Mizrachi (174th for €11,090).

The nine-handed final table was formed on Day 5 with Brandstrom commanding a dominating chip lead over the field.

Watch the cards-up coverage of the EPT Barcelona Main Event final table here:

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

Indian-origin player Kully Sidhu and Day 3 chip leader Pasquale Braco were the first two casualties on the final table, and both of them were booted out in a single hand by Rui Sousa in ninth and eighth place respectively.

Well-known Swedish poker pro Johan Storakers hit the rail next, in seventh place and after his elimination, the play was halted.

Brandstrom who held 18,500,000 (74 BBs) was in the lead, followed by Hungary’s Marton Czuczor (14,450,000 – 58 BBs) and Portugal’s Rui Sousa (9,100,000 – 36BBs).

Day 6 Recap

The very first hand played on Day 6 saw Yunye Lu hitting the rail in sixth place with his two-pair, of kings and jacks dominated by Marton Czuczor’s rivered flush.

Minutes later, Czuczor claimed another victim, and this time it was Giovani Torre. Torre’s king-jack was trailing Czuczor’s ace-king preflop and the latter flopped top pair on the ace-high flop. There was no help coming Torre’s way on the next two streets, forcing him out in fifth place.

Sousa then won a big pot off Diego Falcone that left the latter on life support. Czuczor soon finished the job, sending Falcone out in fourth place. The hand in question saw Falcone moving all-in on the button with . The blinds quickly folded, and Czuczor made the call with . Falcone hit top pair on the flop, but Czuczor reclaimed the lead on the turn, making the river a formality.

The three remaining players then took an unscheduled break to discuss a possible deal. However, they couldn’t come to a consensus and the game resumed.

Not too long after that, Brandstrom raised for 525,000 from the button with , and Rui Sousa defended his big blind with . The flop came and Sousa who’d made one-pair quickly checked while Brandstrom led out 500,000. Sousa raised for 1.4 Million, and Brandstrom moved all-in. Sousa looked at his cards once more and called for his remaining 6.625 Million. Sousa needed a ten or an eight, but the turn was the keeping Brandstorm ahead. The on the river sealed the deal for Sousa, eliminating him in third place.

Entering the heads-up play Marton Czuczor held 31.625 Million against Brandstrom’s 28 Million. The duo agreed on an ICM-based deal that gave Czuczor €1,253,234 and Brandstrom €1,212,706, leaving the title and €77,460 in play for the eventual champion.

It took a good three hours for Brandstorm to stake a claim on the title and the additional €77K and change.

The last hand of the tournament saw Czuczor making a raise for 900,000 and Brandstrom moved all-in from the big blind. Czuczor called all-in for 8.775 Million and was the player at risk.

Marton Czuczor

Simon Brandstrom

Czuczor needed to hit in order to keep himself in contention but completely missed the runout. The Swedish rail erupted in shouts as Brandstorm snagged the EPT Main Event title!

Final Table Results (EURO)

1. Simon Brandstrom – €1,290,166*
2. Marton Czuczor – €1,253,234*
3. Rui Sousa – €607,400
4. Diego Falcone – €436,760
5. Giovani Torre – €364,660
6. Yunye Lu – €295,520
7. Johan Storakers – €226,490
8. Pasquale Braco – €159,580
9. Kully Sidhu – €121,760

*denotes heads-up deal

Content & Images Courtesy: PokerNews