The European Poker Tour Barcelona Euro 25,500 buy-in Single-Day High Roller concluded Tuesday with US poker pro Pratyush Buddiga claiming victory after a tough heads up against New Zealander David Yan.
The event attracted a total of 165 entries comprising 131 unique players and 34 re-entries, creating a prize pool of over Euro 4 million and big money opportunities.
Among those starting out (but not cashing) were big names like Gerard Pique, Anthony Zinno, Timothy Adams, Adrian Mateos, Jason Mercier, Shaun Deeb and lst year’s German winner Martin Finger. Current hot player Fedor Holz was also in the field and managed to cash, albeit at the low end (23rd) for just under Euro 47,000.
Othe notable names who cashed but missed out on the final table included November Niner Vojtech Ruzicka, WSOP Main Event champion Martin Jacobson and One Drop player Christoph Vogelsang.
When German ace Tobias Reinkemeier busted at fourth, the action reached the three-handed stage with Buddiga, Yan and Russian pro Andrey Shatilov huddling to discuss a chop.
The trio agreed that they would go all-in blind until one had all the chips who would be declared winner. The agreement was that David Yan would get a minimum of Euro 704,755, Pratyush Buddiga Euro 690,275 and Andrey Shatilov Euro 606,020.
With the money question settled the three players returned to the action and two hands later it was all over, with Buddiga holding all the chips, Yan finishing second and Shatilov third.
Other final table cashes included:
Tobias Reinkemeier Germany Euro 347,650
Steve O’Dwyer Ireland Euro 278,900
Alex Komaromi Uruguay Euro 216,250
Parker Talbot Canada Euro 160,080
Sergey Lebedev Russia Euro 117,640