John Juanda Triumphs At 2015 Barcelona Main Event

This year’s €5,300 EPT Barcelona Main Event was the biggest ever in the tournaments history, with 1,694 players helping to create a huge prize pool worth €8,215,900 ($9,352,298). Six days of intense action later, and it would be Indonesian-born American John Juanda who would walk away with the title, as well as its impressive €1,022,593 ($1,164,034) first-place prize. Following a victory which pushes his live career earnings to $17,250,677, placing him at number nine on poker’s ‘All Time Money List’, the 44 year-old poker legend tweeted:
“So fortunate to win #EPTBarcelona ME. Thank you for the support, everyone! It’s an unbelievable feeling!”
The Main Event’s huge turnout meant 247 players would see a return on their buy-ins, and amongst the notable pros booking a cash was Winfred Yu in 229th (€8,800), Jeremy Ausmus in 91st (€15,600), Mike McDonald in 43rd (€22,840), Jude Ainsworth in 34th (€27,400), and Andre Akkari in 32nd (€27,400).
By the time the final table had been reached, Denys Shafikov was the chip leader on a 109bb stack, followed by Steven Warburton (45bb) in second spot, with Danish pro Frederik Jensen (35bb) in 4th place, and John Juanda (25bb) in 5th.
John Juanda would then eliminate Amir Touma in 7th ($225,156), but when the tournament had reached four-handed play, Juanda was the short stack at the table and so refused to pursue an ICM deal. Juanda subsequently managed to rebuild his stack before sending Denys Shafikov to the rail in 4th ($469,916), leaving the remaining competitors to divide the money out with Warburton receiving €941,613, Juanda €922,593, Jensen €810,294 and €100,000 left over for the eventual championship.
Next, Juanda eliminated Frederik Jensen in 3rd to take an almost 4:1 lead over Warburton into heads-up. The deciding had was eventually played with Warburton (8-8) and Juanda (Q-Q) all-in preflop. The 10-J-2-2-9 board then consigned Warburton to a runner-up finish, while John Juanda earned a career first EPT title, to go with his 5 WSOP bracelets.
Final Table Result:
1 John Juanda $1,186,208*
2 Steve Warburton $1,092,271*
3 Frederik Jensen $939,941*
4 Denys Shafikov $469,916
5 Rainer Kempe $371,664
6 Andreas Samuelsson $294,524
7 Amir Touma $225,156
8 Mario Sanchez $159,013