Koplimaa Leads Final Six in the €1,100 EPT National at the 2019 EPT Barcelona
Day 2 of the €1,100 EPT National finished with six players making it through to the final day here in Casino Barcelona to battle it out for the lion-share of the €4,541,540 prize pool. All six of them are guaranteed at least €129,100 but will all be aiming for that first-place prize of €585,500 which was accumulated by the record-breaking 4,682-strong field. Taking ownership of the Day 3 chip leader title is Markku Koplimaa with 39,025,000 in chips.
Markku Koplimaa has over $500,000 in cashes already with his best finish when he came third in the €10,300 NLHE event during the ESPT here in Barcelona in 2016, finishing behind Marcin Chmielewski and Nick Petrangelo, for €220,230. Trailing Koplimaa in the counts is [Removed:328] with 38,475,000 which is only one big blind less. He played this event last year too but finished in 304th place for €2,550 but no further results can be found on The Hendon Mob as his profile on there has been removed.
Adam Hendrix closes out the podium with 29,650,000 and has almost $900,000 in cashes already. With this result he will go up to over the 1 million mark. But he will be aiming for more than just the min-cash. Barry McGovern (15,475,000), Matias Arosuo (9,150,000), and Jose Quintas (8,650,000) round out the final table.
McGovern has seventeen cashes recorded with most of them taking place in Ireland and this will be his first time cashing in Spain. Arosuo is no stranger to tournaments as he has several tournament wins on his name already but only cashed once in Spain for €1,940 during the PokerStars National Championship in 2017. Quintas’ life-time tournament earnings take him to almost $800,000 and he will be looking to cross that 1 million mark too.
Final Table Seat Draw
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adam Hendrix | United States | 29,650,000 | 59 |
| 2 | Barry McGovern | Ireland | 15,475,000 | 31 |
| 3 | Jose Quintas | Portugal | 8,650,000 | 17 |
| 4 | Markku Koplimaa | Estonia | 39,025,000 | 78 |
| 5 | Matias Arosuo | Finland | 9,150,000 | 18 |
| 6 | [Removed:328] | Lithuania | 38,475,000 | 77 |
Quick action at the start of the day
The day started with 46 players returning to the felt, all guaranteed at least €9,710. As expected, the eliminations came flying in at a fast pace at the start of the day. Luis Hernandez was first to fall and was then followed in quick succession by players like Tobias Anttila, Pete Chen, Michael Soyza, Day 1d chip leader Romain Vial, Vojtech Ruzicka, and Gisle Olsen to bring the field down to the final two tables.
Rachid Chaouki got his last twelve big blinds in against Andre Silva Dias who held ace-queen. Even though Chaouki flopped an open-ended straight draw, he didn’t manage to get there. Hassan Sey held ace-king when he shoved and was called by [Removed:329] who had pocket nines. No help came on the board to send him packing in 15th place. Gregory Armand was one of the more talkative players left in the field but he was silenced by Jean Leste who had the higher kicker after the board had run out.
Dias himself was eliminated in 13th place with ace-jack when Arosuo held ace-queen. Leste’s tournament life came to an end when he put his last few chips in with four-deuce and couldn’t get there against the ace-seven of Arosuo. Pasquale Braco went in for all of his chips with ace-king and was called by Quintas with ace-jack. The flop went in Quintas’ favor as Braco was sent to the rail in 11th place before the dinner break.
Getting down to the nitty-gritty
First to get eliminated after the dinner break was 2016 November Niner Fernando Pons. Hendrix laid claim to this bustout too as his king-queens beat the pocket nines of Pons. The nine remaining players were combined onto one table and it would take just over twenty minutes before Jose Prieto Pulido was sent to the payout desk when he ran his ace-king into the aces of Lawrence Whyte. However, Whyte’s run was over soon after that he failed to win his final all-in with ace-five of diamonds on the ace-seven-four flop with two diamonds. He bricked the turn and river and lost it all to [Removed:329] who had flopped a set of sevens.
Things started slowing down with seven players left. It took almost 90 minutes before it was time for Jai Saha to say goodbye as his open on the button was called by McGovern who decided to defend his big blind. On the checked through eight-seven-trey-deuce board, McGovern check-shoved after Saha’s bet. Saha tank-called, thinking he had him covered, but found out the bad news after losing with mid-pair against the top pair of McGovern. With a difference of a mere 125,000 he was covered by the Irishman to signal the end of the day.
When the players return at noon local time on Sunday, August 25, they will finish the last 27 minutes or so of Level 36 which features a small blind of 250,000, big blind of 500,000, and big blind ante of 500,000. Play will continue until a winner has been found and the PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to bring you all the action as usual.
Final Table Results
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in EUR) | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | €585,500 | $652,928 | ||
| 2 | €346,500 | $386,734 | ||
| 3 | €263,200 | $293,762 | ||
| 4 | €212,100 | $236,728 | ||
| 5 | €168,100 | $187,619 | ||
| 6 | €129,100 | $144,091 | ||
| 7 | Jai Saha | United Kingdom | €95,100 | $106,143 |
| 8 | Lawrence Whyte | United States | €67,500 | $75,338 |
| 9 | Jose Prieto Pulido | Spain | €54,670 | $61,018 |