The 2022 PokerStars and Barcelona Casino European Poker Tour has been in full swing for the last nine days, with eight of the fourteen events on the schedule complete. The €5,300 EPT Main Event is currently on Day 3 of action, with two other events (€3,000 Mystery Bounty Championship and €25,000 Single Day High Roller II) in play as well. The completed events include a back-to-back winner, two seven-figure pay days, and some of the biggest names in poker taking down titles in the first EPT event since 2019.
Back-To-Back For Benitez
The opening event of EPT Barcelona 2022 was a €10,000 Mystery Bounty event, which attracted 91 entrants. 39 of those players ended up with a bounty on their heads, which ranged from €5,000 all the way to the top bounty of €100,000, which went to eventual fourth-place finisher Joris Rujis. Uruguay’s Francisco Benitez ended up with the title, the €114,080 top prize, as well as an additional €110,000 in bounties, after defeating a tough foe in Igor Yaroshevskyy in heads-up play. As reported by Brandon Bloom of PokerNews, the final hand of the tournament saw Benitez check-call bets on the flop and turn with middle pair, and the river paired the board but also gave Benitez the nut flush. Benitez led out, Yaroshevskyy jammed with king-high, and Benitez called to lock up his first title of EPT 2022…but not his last.
Just two days later, Benitez topped a field of 50 entries in the €25,000 No-Limit Hold’em event, which added an additional €341,565 to his bankroll after a heads-up deal with Argentinian Ramiro Petrone, who banked €306,750 in the deal. High stakes regular and Triton Poker founder Paul Phua finished third for €174,040, while fellow high stakes grinders Erik Seidel (6th – €81,030) and Timothy Adams (7th – €63,030) rounded out the seven players who earned a cash in the high-stakes tournament. Benitez was ecstatic about the dual victories, as evidenced in his second winners photo.
Back to back Benitez!
Uruguayan pro Francisco Benítez has already won two titles at #EPTBarcelona. ? ?
First he took down the €10k Mystery Bounty, and today he captured the €25k NLHE title, winning €341,565.
Read all about it ? https://t.co/38rkDt0k2r pic.twitter.com/xT7mNItrAQ
— PokerStars LIVE (@PokerStarsLIVE) August 11, 2022
Badziakouski Earns Second Career EPT Super High Roller Title
In 2018, Mikita Badziakouski capped off an absolute sun run of a year with a win in the €100,000 Super High Roller at EPT Barcelona for €1,650,300, which somehow was just the third biggest score of the year for the Belarus native, thanks to a pair of Triton Poker victories for over $7.7 million. Badziakouski’s run good at EPT Barcelona didn’t wane after a three year hiatus, however, and he navigated a field of 68 entrants to earn his second EPT €100,000 Super High Roller title of his career, as well as a whopping €1,979,220 after defeating Erik Seidel in heads-up action. Seidel was just grateful to be in the tournament at all, as he didn’t plan on firing until some prodding from Mike Watson convinced him to fire a bullet.
2nd to Mikita in the EPT 100k, he’s a total beast. Grateful to @SirWatts for the € & the push to play, was planning to skip it
— Erik Seidel (@Erik_Seidel) August 16, 2022
Watson managed to finish 7th for a €319,950 payday, while Kevin Paque (3rd – €913,730), Ben Heath (4th – €702,620), Timothy Adams (5th – €540,980), Teun Mulder (6th – €415,630) and Nick Petrangelo (8th – €247,400) rounded out the eight players who earned a cash.
Addamo, Watson and Martirosian Ship Single-Day High Rollers
There are a total of four Single-Day High Rollers on the schedule for EPT Barcelona 2022, with the final €25,000 version in action today. Both of the €25,000 versions and the first €50,000 event finished earlier in the series, with a trio of high-stakes crushers taking home the hardware in the fast-paced events.
The first of the one day affairs, the €25,000 Single-Day High Roller I, brought 80 entrants to the felt, and a nearly fifteen hour day of play saw Artur Martirosian overcome a tough final table that included the likes of Michael Addamo (3rd – €249,320), the aforementioned Francisco Benitez (4th – €191,790), Steve O’Dwyer (6th – €117,260) and Mikita Badziakouski (7th – €93,830) to earn the €540,099 top prize after beating Paul Phua in heads-up play. It was Phua’s second deep run in as many days following his third-place performance in the €25,000 No-Limit Hold’em event.
The €50,000 Single-Day High Roller I had 59 entries, and unfortunately for Mike Watson, he was four of them. Despite the hefty €200,000 investment, Watson made it pay dividends by defeating Australian pro Kahle Burns in heads-up play, earning €872,940 for the win, after “wasting” a monster hand on Burns to earn the victory:
My heads up opponent was such a weak player that I defeated him with merely a ten-high straight flush. Saving the royals for more worthy opponents. https://t.co/6nDLeSMtSH
— Mike Watson (@SirWatts) August 14, 2022
Burns took home €572,420 for his runner-up performance, and Canada’s Pascal Lefrancois (5th – €243,280) and the aforementioned Addamo (8th – €114,480) were among the eight players to earn a payday.
Addamo’s work in the Single-Day events wasn’t over, however, as the second and final €50,000 version saw the Australian pro earn his first ever EPT title, which may come as a surprise given Addamo’s stellar tournament resume over the course of his lengthy career on the felt. The €917,330 Addamo earned for topping a 62-entry field in the €50,000 Single-Day High Roller II would be a career highlight for many, yet for Addamo, it counts as just the eighth-biggest score of his career, a testament to the success Addamo has enjoyed as a high-stakes reg. David Yan had to settle for second place and €601,520, while Adrian Mateos (5th – €255,650), Dan Smith (6th – €195,500) and Sam Greenwood (7th – €150,380) were part of eight players who earned a cash.
Van Bruggen and Alilovic Earn Estrellas Tour Titles
Rounding out the completed events so far at EPT Barcelona were a pair of Estrellas Poker Tour Events. In the €1,100 Estrellas Poker Tour Main Event, a total of 6,313 entrants participated in the five-day event, and 2018 WSOPE Main Event champ Jack Sinclair managed to work his way through the monster field and make it to heads-up play against Rick van Bruggen, who only had around $20,000 in career cashes coming into the event. Van Bruggen was undeterred by the challenge, and earned €600,000 for the top prize after busting Sinclair, who had to settle for €377,120 for his second place run.
The ESPT also held a €2,200 High Roller event which attracted a more modest, but still impressive 2,173 entrants. Andre Akkari squeaked into the final table before busting in ninth for €57,490, while Miroslav Alilovic (€512,650) and Ian Bradley (€500,000) chopped up the lion’s share of the prize pool, with the Frenchman Alilovic earning the title, trophy and the small amount of cash left to play for after the chop.
