By RP, August 25, 2015
French pro and 2015 November Niner Sylvain Loosli and his Argentinian counterpart Mario Lopez enjoyed successful and very profitable runs at this week’s 2015 PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona.
Frenchman Loosli started the Euro 50,000 Super High Roller event seventh in chips, but played with discipline and skill to outmanoeuvre even the very talented Polish pro Dzmitry Urbanovich in the heads up, earning himself the Euro 1,224,000 top prize in doing so.
Urbanovich looked certain to win at the four-handed stage of the game, holding most of the chips in play. Earlier on in the final table JC Alvarado was doing most of the dispatching until he crashed out spectacularly at fourth for Euro 446,800, leaving just Urbanovich, Loosli and German high stakes ace Christoph Vogelsang in the race to the finish.
Vogelsang was eliminated by Loosli at third for Euro 551,485, setting the scene for the heads up between Urbanovich and Loosli, and giving the latter a substantial chip advantage as heads up action commenced.
He remained in the driver’s seat despite a valiant Urbanovich fight-back, dispatching the Pole with the runner up prize of Euro 841,500, and spoiling Urbanovbich’s impressive run of poker victories so far this year.
The event attracted 99 entries.
Staying with the Barcelona festival, Argentinian Mario Lopez secured a bank account-boosting victory worth Euro 408,000 after a two-way chop with Austrian runner up Jonn Forst in the Euro 1,100 buy-in Estrellas Barcelona Main Event.
With victories in the LAPT Chile and a second placing in the last WSOP Little One for Big Drop competition, Lopez had the respect of his final table opponents, and he again showed impressive skills in not only surviving the record 3,292-strong entry field but a formidable final table as well.
Play paused at the three-handed stage as the almost evenly matched Lopez, Forst and Norwegian pro Knut Nystedt tried on several occasions to agree on a chop, but the negotiations fell through.
The debate was resolved when Forst eliminated Nystedt to set up the heads up between himself and Lopez, with Forst holding a meagre chip advantage.
Dividing the spoils caused another pause until the two agreed on an equal share, leaving Euro 70,000 on the table for the winner.
With that settled, play resumed and Lopez immediately started out on an upward curve which enabled him to eventually knock Forst out and send him home with a Euro 338,000 and still impressive consolation prize.
Other final table pay-outs were:
Knut Nystedt Euro 168,000
Jose Carlos Garcia Euro 139,500
Eduard Sanchez Euro 116,540
Kondah Abdelhadi Euro 93,600
Simon Sennhauser Euro 71,400
Daniel Selles Euro 52,100
This year’s Barcelona festival continues to run this week with year-on-year improvements in player turnout – the Euro 5,300 buy-in EPT Barcelona main event has already commenced.