Tom Orpaz Wins as High Rollers Round Out EPT Barcelona

A trio of top-quality events rounded out the 2023 European Poker Tour festival in Barcelona as one of the most popular EPTs in history came to a conclusion. There were dramatic finished in the Super High Roller Second Chance, Mystery Bounty and High Roller events as players such as Barcelona’s soccer legend Gerard Pique, nine-time WSOP bracelet winner Erik Seidel and Hong Kong poker crusher Ka Kwan Lau all made the latter stages.

Orpaz Wins Stunning Super High Roller for €442,000

Tom Orpaz continued his fine run of form by taking down the €50,000-entry Super High Roller Second Chance event for a top prize of over $475,000. At a superbly talented final table of six, it was the former F.C. Barcelona defender Gerard Pique who busted first, losing with A♠J♠ to Tsugunari Toma’s 10♠4♦ as the board came K♠Q♣J♥8♠A♣, rivering a straight in the harshest of circumstances to take out the Champions League and La Liga winner. Pique was polite as ever, collecting €60,000 in sixth place.

Next to go was the American Justin Saliba, who sold action to EPT Barcelona events via PokerStake  and finished a very creditable fifth for €100,600. Saliba lost with ace-jack like Pique, albeit it at the start of the final day rather than the end of the previous one. Losing a flip to Orpaz’ 4♦4♣, nothing higher than a ten came on the board to see Saliba slide out of contention.

Erik Seidel was Orpaz’ next victim and the popular everyman Seidel got unlucky, all-in with K♦6♠, losing to Orpaz’ J♣2♣. The flop of Q♠2♦2♥ almost condemned Seidel, before a 7♠ turn ended matters before the river card, sending Seidel home with €113,800. Biao Ding followed him shortly afterwards, losing with Q♥10♠ to Toma’s A♦A♣, and as the Chinese player cashed for €157,200, the heads-up was set.

Orpaz had lost a big pot when he attempted to bluff Toma, doubling him up instead. With a lead of 3.25 million chips to Toma’s 2.75m, Orpaz had the lead. He’d slipped marginally behind when the pivotal hand played out, getting it all-in good with Q♠Q♦, which held against Toma’s A♦7♦ after a flop of 9♠7♥3♥ saw the chips go in. With a lead of 29 to 1 in chips, it looked over, but Toma somehow doubled time and again to get back to 2.4 million. That was when a missed straight draw lost to Orpaz’ top pair for the title.

Lau Wins ‘Insanely Long’ High Roller

Hong Kong professional Ka Kwan Lau won the €10,000 EPT High Roller, and with the final €25,000-entry one-day NLHE High Roller being cancelled, it was a final hurrah to remember. Nine made the final table, with Italian Francesco Pilato all-in and at risk with K♥10♠. He lost to Vladas Tamasauskas’ A♥J♥, as the flop came 9♠8♠4♣6♥Q♦ to send Pilato home with a score of €85,250. His departure was followed by that of Toby Joyce in 8^th place as the Irish player lost in a dominating hand to Eric Sfez.

Russian player Aleksandr Shevliakov busted in seventh before French major winner Alexandre Reard crashed out for €184,950 in sixth. Reard – the second consecutive player to bust to the eventual champion – was all-in with Q♠10♠ but he was crushed by Ka Kwan Lau’s A♦Q♦.

Lau then busted Tunisian player Maher Nouira in fifth for €240,400 with pocket queens too good for pocket threes pre-flop, before Sfez missed out on the podium places, cashing for €312,250 in fourth.

Three-handed, the former chip leader Tamasauskas lost out, running short to bust with 8♥6♦ to Lau’s J♣10♣ as a jack on the flop did the damage. That gave the chip leader a massive 6:1 chip lead going into the final battle and on the second hand of heads-up play, Ouassini Mansouri said “Let’s Go!” and shoved with K♣8♣. Called by Lau with A♦10♥, the board of A♥J♠6♥3♣10♠ pronounced an exhausted but jubilant Lau the winner.

Lau’s Main Event ran into trouble on Day 4 after he confesses that he ‘played one hand badly”. “Then I ran with ace-king into aces, and I lost two flips. This win compensates for the disappointment of the Main Event.”

It was a hard graft to get the job done in this Mystery Bounty event.

“This last day was insanely long,” Lau said. “We returned with 40 players left on Day 3, which is a lot. We knew it would be long if we were on the final table. But I didn’t expect it to be that long!”

Lau may have had a long day, but it left him with a profit of €900,000 and the second-biggest tournament cash of his poker career so far.

Mystery Bounty Won by Andrade After Amazing Comeback

“THIS IS MY FIRST TIME COMING TO AN EPT AND YEAH, HUGE SCORE. MY HANDS ARE SHAKING, MAN.”

The €3,000-entry Mystery Bounty tournament saw nine different countries represented by players at the final table – a country each – as a truly global event came to a conclusion in style. It was the Portuguese player Ricardo De Andrade who won the top prize of €374,064, defeating Austrian Armin Rezaei heads-up for the win.

Two players drew the biggest bounties of €200,000, with Samy Boujmala and seventh-placed Jan Bronkhorst each pulling the most lucrative prize to add to their tournament winnings. All of the big bounty prizes had gone by the time the final table kicked off, with just one €5,000 prize along with €1,000 prizes up for grabs.

Playing his first-ever EPT, Andrade’s victory came as a surprise to him as well as others, after he battled back from an incredible 10:1 disadvantage heads-up to claim the ‘Spadie’ trophy.

“Heads-up started with an almost ten-to-one disadvantage, but I regained my focus,” he told reporters in the aftermath. “I doubled up and next I won two pots, three pots. When that happened, I felt like, ‘I’m going to take this down’. The momentum was there, and I was confident.”

Andrade had every reason to be. Although mostly an online poker player, he made this event his second live tournament after attending the Madrid-based Estrellas Tour on the EPT back in March.

“This is my first time coming to an EPT and yeah, huge score. My hands are shaking, man, I don’t even know how to express it. Just to play an EPT is a dream come true, but to win an event is crazy!”

After such a stunning win, Andrade is the toast of his family and friends proving that it is not always experience that takes down a big title.

This article originally appeared on PokerStake.com