Connor Drinan Triumphs at 2016 EPT Barcelona €10,300 High Roller

The final event of the 2016 European Poker Tour Barcelona, the €10,300 NLHE High Roller event, attracted a record field of 591 players to create a prize pool worth €5,732,300. Three days of intense action later, and it was Connor Drinan who would eventually triumph over his competitors to claim the coveted EPT title, as well as the tournament’s €849,200 ($959,596) first place prize.
In 2015, the US pro finished the $500k Super High Roller Bowl in 3rd place for $3,225,000, and after scooping the second biggest score of his tournament career, Drinan now boost his live earnings to $10,132,441.
The €10,300 EPT High Roller attracted 472 enteries and 119 rebuys, meaning 119 money places were on offer. Amongst the big name pros subsequently seeing a return on their money was David Benefield in 96th (€11,695), Adrian Mateos in 59th (€19,200), Mike McDonald in 30th (€27,800), Ivan Luca in 27th (€32,680), Joe Serock in 21st (€38,410), Davidi Kitai in 16th (€49,875), and Anthony Zinno in 13th (€67,100).
After the final table of nine got underway, Connor Drinan (A-4) eliminated a short-stacked Joseph Cheong (J-2) in 6th, before doing likewise to Oleksii Khoroshenin in 4th. In the meantime, Mihails Morozovs took care of Patrick Leonard in 7th, and Kyle Keranen in 3rd to set-up the final battle against Drinan for the title.
At this stage, both players were fairly even in chips and an hour would then pass before the deciding hand was played with both Morozovs (Jh-10h) and Drinan (6s-4h) moving all-in on a 10d-6c-4s flop. The Ks and Qc subsequently sealed the deal, and so Morozovs took home $697,029 for his hard-fought efforts, while Drinan was crowned the 2016 EPT Barcelona High Roller champion.
Final Table Results ($):
1: Connor Drinan $959,596
2: Mihails Morozovs $697,029
3: Kyle Keranen $560,977
4: Oleksii Khoroshenin $448,271
5: Ari Engel $347,927
6: Joseph Cheong $263,629
7: Patrick Leonard $191,761
8: Pascal Hartmann $140,572
9: Ilkin Savalan Amirov $108,164
Next stop on the European Poker Tour will be Malta from October 18-29, followed by the Czech Republic from December 8-19.