Spanish poker pro and former economics lecturer Marti Roca De Torres (36) is a WSOP bracelet and Euro 1,115,207 richer after winning the Euro 10,350 buy-in World Series of Poker Europe main event in Rozvadov, Czech Republic over the weekend. The huge prize completely eclipsed his previous career live tourney earnings of just Euro 30,000.
Making his victory truly cost effective, De Torres won his seat in the event through a Euro 220 satellite on 888Poker.
529 hopefuls entered the event, which culminated in a 14-hour final day and a gruelling 4-hour heads up.
Among the many well-known and respected players in the field were Kevin MacPhee, Vivian Saliba, Pierre Neuville, Phillip Gruissem, David Peters, Mike Leah, Ismael Bojang, Anthony Zinno, Rainer Kempe and Kristin Bicknell…none of whom made the final table but were among the 80 players who cashed.
High profile US poker pro Maria Ho started the final day of play with the chip lead after an outstanding performance in preceding days, but she fell early on in sixth place following a clash over a major pot with Niall Farrell and De Torres. Farrell quickly followed her to the exit, leaving De Torres with a significant lead. That probably enabled him to weather the storms ahead as the remaining four players gave it their all in pursuit of a top prize of over a million Euros.
At one point De Torres found himself the shortest stack, but he managed to hang in and then fought his way back into the game to eventually face Italian ace Gianluca Speranza, who started the heads up with a 3 to 1 chip advantage and seemed to be in control of the game.
De Torres fought on, however, reducing Speranza’s lead and after 75 more hands of intense, chip leader-changing action finally defeating the Italian.
For his spirited and skilful performance Speranza earned the second prize of Euro 689,246, whilst De Torres scored the biggest win of his career so far, along with his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet.
Other final table cashes were:
Mathijs Jonkers – Euro 476,585
Robert Bickley – Euro 335,089
Niall Farrell – Euro 239,639
Maria Ho – Euro 174,365