EPT Barcelona 2011 Won By Martin Schleich

Martin Schleich has triumphed at the 2011 EPT Barcelona, after overcoming a field of 811 players over six days to lift the trophy, and collect the €850,000 ($1,219,337) first place prize.
Following his victory after a gruelling 14 hours of play at the final table of eight yesterday, Schleich, 29, from Munich commented:
“I can’t take it in right now. I’m very tired and my flight leaves in two hours!! I’m really happy but it’s too early to think about what I’ll do with the money.”
On Day 1a of the €5,300 Main Event at Barcelona’s Gran Casino, Martin Schleich propelled himself into an overnight chip lead, before then remarkably managing to stay in contention all the way to the final table, which he entered as an average stack.
On the other hand, Eugene Katchalov started the final table as a 14bb short-stack, but then scored two early double-ups, the second of which sent last woman standing, Isabel Baltazar, to the rails.  Baltazar picked-up pocket queens at the same time Katchalov was dealt pocket aces and so she  departed in 8th place for €73,000.
Start of the day chip leader Tomeu Gomila with pocket tens then eliminated Juan Manuel Perez (A-K) in 7th for €105,000, before Katchalov holding pocket threes dispatched an all-in and short-stacked Saar Wilf (A-2) in 6th place for €145,000.
At this stage Eugene Katchalov was now the chip leader, and after Schleich (Q-Q) dispatched Tomeu Gomila (A-K) to the rail in 5th (€185,000), Katchalov holding Q-10 called Raul Mestre’s all-in shove with Ad-5d before then making a queen-high straight to eliminate Mestre in 4th for €244,000.
However, Eugene Katchalov’s incredible run came to an end after another four hours of play, in which his stack was diminished. Eventually, Katchalov went all-in for his remaining 3.3 million in chips holding pocket sevens to Schleich’s pocket nines. The 7-9-3 flop then sealed his fate to knockout the Ukrainian-born pro in 3rd spot for €315,000.
As the heads-up phase of the competition got underway, Schleich (15.5m) held a 2 to 1 chip advantage over Spain’s Dragan Kostic (8.775m). An hour of play saw Kostic narrow the gap, before eventually re-raising all-in pre-flop with A-7 into Schleich’s A-9.
The board then fell Q-5-2-K-9, to relegate Kostic to a runner-up position worth €532,000, while Martin Schleich was declared the 2011 EPT Barcelona Champion.
The hugely successful EPT next heads to the Hilton Metropole Hotel in London from September 30th to Oct 6th, where last year David Vamplew beat a field of 848 players to collect the £900,000 top prize.