Italian player Giuliano Bendinelli defeated a record-breaking field of 2,294 entries in the EPT Barcelona Main Event on Sunday to win a gigantic first prize of €1,491,133. It was an incredible comeback for the 31-year-old, who had been down to just one big blind on the final table with six players remaining.
Bendinelli is the third Italian player to hoist the EPT Main Event trophy and the first in more than eight years. British pro Scott Margereson , who won the UKIPT Nottingham Super High Roller event at Dusk Till Dawn only last month, finished eighth for €198,000.
Next up on the European Poker Tour is EPT London in October at the spectacular Park Lane Hilton. Let MainEventTravel find you a great place to stay!
The prize pool for the €5,300 buy-in EPT Barcelona Main Event topped €11 million with the top 328 finishers getting paid – including former PCA champion Maria Lampropulos who finished (36th for €31,220) and PokerStars Ambassador Ben Spragg cashed in 195th for €11,730.
EPT Barcelona ran August 8-21 and attracted a staggering 27,451 entries across the 61 different tournaments. It broke multiple attendance records and the Estrellas Barcelona Main Event became the biggest PokerStars live event in history with 6,313 entries. Belarus player Mikita Badziakouski won the Super High Roller for the second time after beating Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel heads-up while Giada Fang beat Aurelie Reard to win a Platinum Pass in the PSPC Women's event.
Road to PSPC
Players keen to win their way to next January’s PokerStars Players Championship should certainly be booking a room in Nottingham this weekend for the Road to PSPC event at Dusk Till Dawn. The Road to PSPC – which runs August 25-29 – gives players the chance to win a $30k trip to the Bahamas for the PokerStars Players NL Hold’em Championship including
Main Event buy-in, six nights’ luxury hotel accommodation and $1,900 in cash towards expenses. As well as the the Road to PSPC Main Event, the schedule includes a number of satellites, a Bounty Hunter PSPC Special, and the £120 Big Bounty PSPC Special. At the last Road to PSPC event in Dublin in July, Irish player John Howlett beat a 68-entry field to win €22,700 along with his $30,000 Platinum Pass.
EPT heads to London!
Next up on the EPT calendar is the return of EPT London – after a break of nearly seven years. This iconic event – which famously saw Victoria Coren Mitchell seize her first EPT trophy back in 2006, will be held at the spectacular Park Lane Hilton from October 18 to 28.
The festival will feature dozens of events including a UKIPT London Main Event, a UKIPT Mystery Bounty and the UKIPT High Roller along with exciting EPT tournaments such as the EPT Main Event, EPT High Roller, EPT Super High Roller, H-O-R-S-E Championship and EPT Platinum Pass Mystery Bounty.
MainEventTravel has a bunch of fabulous accommodation options in all the EPT destinations. Click here for further details.
The final EPT of the year will be EPT Prague which is taking place in its traditional pre-Christmas slot from December 7-18.
PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) and the PCA
The celebrated PokerStars Players Championship and PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is taking place in January 2023 in the Bahamas. The festival is being held at the magnificent Baha Mar resort, a brand-new venue for the PCA, from January 22 to February 3. The first $25,000 PokerStars Players Championship was a massive success with Spanish PokerStars qualifier Ramon Colillas turning his Platinum Pass into a $5.1 million payday. There were a total of 1,039 entries for the 2019 event creating a prize pool of nearly $26.5 million.
PokerStars is promising to take the event to a whole new level for the second edition in January 2023 with a truly epic celebration of poker. The $10,300 buy-in PCA Main Event will run January 24 to 29 with the $25k Players Championship kicking off on January 30.
Photo Credit: Danny Maxwell, PokerStars
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