Swedish warehouse worker Sebastian Sorensson, an amateur player who won a Euro 215 online satellite to enter only his second live poker tournament, has emerged victorious from the Euro 5,300 buy-in 2017 PokerStars Championship Barcelona main event, besting an entry field of of 1,682 that generated a more than $7 million prize pool.
The NLHE competition was generous in its reward for the winner, who took home Euro 987,043.
The event was remarkable for the intense final table competition, where players in seemingly hopeless situations staged extraordinary fight-backs, the chip lead changed hands between the finalists several times in a dynamic and exciting finale, and the final three ended up agreeing a chop that gave each over Euro 850,000 and left Euro 100,000 on the table for the winner.
Down to three handed action Sorensson, Bulgarian pro Lachezar Plamenov Petkov and Italy’s Raffaele Sorrentino agreed a chop before the action resumed and Sorrentino was eliminated at third for Euro 850,110.
That left Sorensson facing Petkov with a 4 to 1 chip advantage, a situation that did not seem to perturb the Bulgarian in the least as the two got down to business. Petkov made an impressive come-back that enabled him to seize the lead at one point, but Sorensson responded with his own fightback to regain dominance and finally dispatch a tough opponent with the second placing prize of Euro 917,347.
Other final table cashes included:
Brian Kaufman Esposito Euro 402,000
André Akkari Euro 317,960
Usman Siddique Euro 252,000
Aeregan Arunan Euro 193,000
Albert Daher Euro 136,000
With the Barcelona festival concluding, Pokerstars released some interesting facts and figures on its Barcelona extravaganza, including the news that the Euro 1,100 buy-in National Championship drew 4,557 entries to generate a Euro 4.4 million prize pool. In that event, Argentina pro Pedro Cairat triumphed and took home Euro 575,000 after another three-finalist chop.
In the Euro 330 buy-in PokerStars Cup 2,648 entries were recorded and Dutch player Sander van Wesemael achieved the remarkable feat of winning his third PokerStars Cup event in a two-month period. The young Dutchman won the cup at the PS Festival in Marbella (788 players; Euro 36,450 prize) and then the PokerStars Festival in Lille (558 players; Euro 28,704). received €127,000.