Carter Phillips Wins EPT Barcelona 2009

A 20 year old American by the name of Carter Phillips has won the PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona ETP and described his experience as “unreal”.
 
The North Carolina man battled bravely for six days at the €8,000 buy-in event before winning the title on Wednesday and picking up the €850,000 top prize. Following his win he said: “The whole tournament it felt like any other tournament to me, even when we got heads up. I think once the river hit the deck, all the emotion came in to me at once .. and it’s overwhelming.”
 
Phillips, who’s prior highest cash was $48K after winning the PokerStars Sunday Second Chance last year, started as chip leader at the final table after the 479 field had narrowed to just 8 players but Santiago Terrazas as the only Spaniard at the table was clearly the crowds favourite.
Although starting seventh in chips, Santiago Terrazas managed to double up a few times and survive long enough to make it into the top three. He decided to move all in with a flush draw but was called by English poker pro Marc Goodwin who’s top pair held up eliminating the Spaniard from the competition to the partisan crowd’s disappointment. He received €300,000 for his third place finish.
The heads up battle presented a tantalising contest between a young man 10 months into his poker career and a seasoned professional who won his first live tournament 10 years before Phillips was even born.
Despite holding a 2 to 1 advantage the American still had to endure a three hour battle with the lead passing hands on a several occasions before he correctly called Mark Goodwins semi bluff with top pair. Phillip, held K J on a K 5 4 Q while Goodwin had A 10 and a gut shot straight, which failed to materialise on the river and so handed him his first major title and the biggest win of his short career.
A clearly elated Phillips put his win down to some fine tuning in his overall game. Referring to other tournaments he had played in he said: ” I had made some bad plays and bad calls. Over aggression was the big factor in those other tournaments as to why I’d lost and I think, in this tournament, I kept to my aggressive style, but it was much more controlled and I didn’t do anything stupid to lose huge pots.”