Brandstrom wins record-setting EPT Barcelona Main Event
September 4, 2019 10:17 am
Swedish poker pro Simon Brandstrom won his second poker title in Barcelona this year earlier this week, capturing the record-setting main event at EPT Barcelona.
The €5,300 No-Limit Hold’em tournament drew a record crowd of 1,988 players. That topped the previously record of 1,931 players in an EPT main event that was set in Barcelona last year. For outlasting the record field Brandstrom cashed €1,290,166, or $1,432,084 US.
This was the second major tournament in Barcelona that Bradstrom has won this year. Back in March Brandstrom was the last man standing in the WPTDeepStacks Barcelona main event. In that tournament he topped a 1,232-player field to cash $305,529. In total, his two Spanish wins earned him just over $1.7 million.
In the EPT main event Brandstrom entered the final table of six holding the chip lead. That lead ended up being short lived after Martin Czuczor went on a tear and eliminated the first three players that were sent to the rail.
Not surprisingly it eventually came down to Brandstrom and Czuczor heads-up for the tournament title. When heads-up play began Czuczor had a slight chip lead with 31.6 million chips to Brandstrom’s 28 million.
Before the first hand was dealt the pair made a deal with Czuczor receiving $1,391,090 and Brandstrom getting $1,346,104. They also left $85,981 for the winner to collect as well.
Czuczor continued to increase his chip stack early before the key hand of the tournament. With blinds at 200,000/400,000 Czuczor raised to 900,000 and Brandstrom called. The flop showed Kd-3d-3c. After a check from Brandstrom Czuczor bet 700,000.
Brandstrom called and the turn was the 6d. After another check from Brandstrom Czuczor bet 1.7 million. Brandstrom once again called and the river was the 10h. Brandstrom came out checking again and Czuczor bet 6 million. Brandstrom moved all-in and Czuczor made a quick call. Czuczor had 6s-3s to give him a full house.
However, it was not good enough, as Brandstrom rolled over Kc-3h for a better full house.
With the chip lead in hand Brandstrom cruised to the win. On the final hand bother players were all-in preflop with Brandstrom holding 6-6 and Czuczor holding Ks-Qc. The board ended up 9s-7c-2d-Ad-5h giving Brandstrom the hand and the tournament win.