€25,000 Single-Day High Roller I
Day 1 Completed
2022 PokerStars EPT Barcelona
€25,000 Single-Day High Roller I
Day: 1
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Players Info - Day 1
2022 PokerStars EPT Barcelona
Buy-in
€25,000
Prize Pool
€1,920,800
Entries
80
Level
27
Blinds
100,000 / 200,000
Ante
200,000
Entries
80
Players Left
1
Level 27
: Blinds 100,000/200,000, 200,000 ante
The €25,000 Single-Day High Roller I saw 80 total entries take their shot at becoming the champion of the first of two events of its kind at the 2022 PokerStars and Barcelona©Casino European Poker Tour. It took over 14 hours and 27 levels of play for a winner to be determined, and when all was said and done, Artur Martirosian claimed the title after defeating Paul Phua in heads-up play.
Martirosian took fourth place in Event #11: €25,000 No-Limit Hold'em just a few days ago for a prize of €132,060 and was able to improve upon that finish by claiming the first-place prize of €540,990 (USD $555,193), adding to his already-impressive lifetime earnings of $3.4 million in live tournaments with even more claimed online.
PokerStars EPT Barcelona €25,000 Single-Day High Roller I Final Table Results
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Artur Martirosian | Russia | €540,099 |
| 2 | Paul Phua | Malaysia | €349,010 |
| 3 | Michael Addamo | Australia | €249,320 |
| 4 | Francisco Benitez | Uruguay | €191,790 |
| 5 | Laszlo Bujtas | Hungary | €147,520 |
| 6 | Steve O'Dwyer | Ireland | €117,260 |
| 7 | Mikita Badziakouski | Belarus | €93,830 |
| 8 | Imad Derwiche | France | €75,010 |
| 9 | Aleksejs Ponakovs | Latvia | €60,030 |
The Early Goings
Martirosian was one of the first players to join the tournament, having registered in the first level of play, and found himself well-established early on. He and third-place finisher Michael Addamo were at the top of the chip counts since the beginning and managed to keep up the pressure all day long.
Other players such as Adrian Mateos, Daniel Dvoress, and Dan Smith also were around to start the day and were quickly joined by others such as Jean-Noel Thorel, Timothy Adams, Patrik Antonius, and Nick Petrangelo
There was no shortage of action across every table in the room, which at its peak totaled 6 tables of play as the registration period continued and many who were eliminated fired second and, in some cases, third bullets. During that time, Martirosian was able to take a starting stack of 100,000 up to just shy of 600,000 to claim one of the largest stacks into the evening.
Into the Night
Addamo was the clear chip leader coming back from the dinner break when registration closed with a stack of 763,000, but Martirosian was right behind him with a healthy stack of 648,000. At that point, 47 players still remained and it took about two hours for that number to reach 24 for the three-table redraw and then another hour after that for the two-table redraw.
Over the course of that time, Laszlo Bujtas was seen consistently adding to his stack, entering the final two tables with a count just shy of 1 million. Meanwhile, others hung around as the action flew by, with Danny Tang and Eric Rabl being just a few of the players who never seemed to be involved in big pots as they continued to maintain their stack and survive.
Steve O'Dwyer and Martirosian were also at the top of the counts at the time with, but Martirosian soared to 1.2 million when he rivered a full house to get a huge double-up from Aleksejs Ponakovs, making him the clear chip leader. Play then began to slow down a bit as the bubble approached, and once they were, it lasted for almost two hours as they played hand-for-hand and no one wanted to be the dreaded bubble boy.
In the end, Bruno Volkmann burst the bubble as he was forced all in from the big blind with six-five offsuit and was beaten by Martirosian with a pair of kings.
The Final Table
The final table of nine was eventually reached six full levels after the initial redraw at 16 due to the bubble process, and Martirosian entered with a whopping 2.1 million in chips which was almost double that of Fransisco Benitez in second place with 1.2 million. Ponakovs found himself short early on and ended up departing in ninth place, followed by Imad Derwiche in eighth. Mikita Badziakouski was also eliminated shortly after in seventh, but once it got down to the final six, action began to slow down once more. The blinds continued to climb, hitting less than 100 total big blinds in play with O’Dwyer, Bujtas, and Benitez all eventually busting within a span of 30 minutes.
The Final Three
Three-handed play began with Phua atop the counts followed by Martirosian and Addamo. The latter quickly found a double through Phua when his ace-ten held against the king-queen. From there, it seemed he was gaining momentum, but lost almost all of it when he moved all in with a rivered straight but was snapped off by Martirosian who had hit a flush.
Addamo was left short and was eliminated when his queen-four was bested by Phuas’ king-four. Phua’s stack still paled in comparison to Martirosian’s, even after busting Addamo and he himself was defeated shortly afterward when he got it in with ace-jack versus Martirosian’s ace-deuce. The flop was nine-nine-deuce and the deuce held the whole way for Martirosian to be crowned the €25,000 High Roller champion.
PokerNews' coverage of EPT Barcelona will continue Saturday, August 13 with Day 3 of the €1,100 Estrellas Poker Tour Main Event at noon as well as the Single-Day Event #20: €50,000 NL Hold’em that begins at 12:30 p.m. local time tomorrow.
Level 27
: Blinds 100,000/200,000, 200,000 ante
Paul Phua moved all in for a little over 2,000,000 and Artur Martirosian made the call, putting Phua at risk.
Paul Phua: 
Artur Martirosian: 
Although Phua was a huge favorite, the flop came 
, pairing Martirosian's deuce. The runout of 
changed nothing and Phua was eliminated in second place.
Stay tuned for a full recap of the tournament.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
8,000,000
3,900,000
|
3,900,000 |
|
||
|
Busted | |
Level: 27
Blinds: 100,000/200,000
Ante: 200,000
Level 26
: Blinds 80,000/160,000, 160,000 ante
Michael Addamo and Paul Phua got all their chips in the middle preflop, with Addamo at risk.
Michael Addamo: 
Paul Phua: 
The board ran out 
to give Phua two pair, kings and fours to win the hand and Addamo was eliminated in third place.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
2,500,000
-600,000
|
-600,000 |
|
Busted |
Level 26
: Blinds 80,000/160,000, 160,000 ante
On a heads-up completed board of 
, Artur Martirosian bet 160,000 into a pot of around 500,000. His opponent, Michael Addomo, then announced he was all in, covering Martirosian.
Martirosian checked his cards once more, then quickly made the call.
"I have straight," said Addomo as he tabled 
for a rivered straight, but he was quickly shown the bad news when Martirosian flipped over 
for a rivered flush to win the massive pot of 4,100,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
4,100,000
2,500,000
|
2,500,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
1,600,000
-1,600,000
|
-1,600,000 |
Level: 26
Blinds: 80,000/160,000
Ante: 160,000
Level: 25
Blinds: 60,000/120,000
Ante: 120,000
Level 24
: Blinds 50,000/100,000, 100,000 ante
Artur Martirosian raised to 250,000 from the small blind and action was to Michael Addamo in the big blind.
"How much do you have?" Addamo asked.
"Around 1.8," Martirosian replied.
Addamo then three-bet to 600,000 and Martirosian snap folded.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
3,200,000
1,775,000
|
1,775,000 |
|
|
1,600,000
-1,200,000
|
-1,200,000 |
|
|
||
Level: 24
Blinds: 50,000/100,000
Ante: 100,000