Poker pro John Juanda (44) is Euro 1,022,593 wealthier this morning after taking down the main event of the Pokerstars European Poker Tour main event in Barcelona…and he achieved his first EPT champion title after a year-long break from top level poker.
There were 1,624 entries in the event, each providing a buy-in of Euro 5,300 to generate a massive Euro 8.21 million prize pool.
Among the 247 players who cashed were EPT Vienna winner Oleksii Khoroshenin, Johnny Lodden, Andre Akkari, Natalie Hof, Fatima Moreira de Melo, Patrik Antonius, and 2013 WSOP Main Event champion Ryan Riess.
With so much money theoretically on the table it came as no surprise when the field was down to four players – John Juanda, Steve Warburton, Frederik Jensen and Denys Shafikov – and they elected to negotiate a chop.
Although at that stage he had the lowest chip stack, Juanda declined the Euro 150,000 offer he was made with the winner’s prize of over a million Euros clearly in his sights (a decision that subsequently proved very profitable for him) and the action resumed.
Just short of an hour later Shafikov – the chip leader at the start of final table action – busted out at fourth for Euro 405,100, followed by a further chop negotiation with the three survivors all holding similar chip stacks.
This time the chop agreement was successful, with Warburton guaranteed Euro 941,613; Jensen Euro 810,294 and Juanda Euro 922,593, with Euro 100,000 left on the table for the winner.
Soon after Jensen busted at third for Euro 810,294, and the Juanda vs. Warburton (28) heads up was set and ultimately won by the more experienced Juanda’s pocket queens against Warburton’s pair of eights, sending the runner up home with a still respectable Euro 941,613.
The win takes Juanda’s career live tournament earnings to around $17 million.
Other final table payments were:
Rainer Kempe Euro 320,400
Andreas Samuelsson Euro 253,900
Amir Touma Euro 194,100
Mario Sanchez Euro137,080