The Estrellas Poker Tour’s Main Event is the starter to EPT Barcelona’s main course. This year, 20 years on from the first-ever European Poker Tour Main Event – also in Barcelona – Sylvain Berthelot from France won the Estrellas Main Event for the biggest score of his career, a whopping $552,250. With players such as Parker Talbot and Martin Zamani falling just short, the final table was a thriller.

Bumper Prizepool After 7,100 Entries

A prizepool of over $7.58 million was gathered in after 7,138 players put up the €1,100 buy-in, the equivalent of around $1,215. The final table was nine-handed and featured a ninth-place prize of $68,300. Out in that position was Swedish player Magnus Persson, who moved all-in with on a flop of . Martin Zamani had the easiest of snap calls with and through the [ turn and , knocked out the crestfallen Persson as the field was reduced to eight.

Out in eighth place for $87,835 was Dutch player Johannes Verhagen. All-in for just over four big blinds with , Verhagen saw Jean Benvenga call with before a flop of put the Swiss player ahead. A on the turn kept Benvenga ahead and Verhagen was out when a hit the river.

Next to go was the Lithuanian player Stanislovas Vinicenka, who busted in seventh for $115,600. All-in with pre-flop, he was well ahead of caller Martin Zamani with . Zamani quipped: “Do you want to bet side money on your hand?” to the response from Vinicenka, “I’m broke!”

The board of sent Vinicenka from the rail whereupon Zamani said, “At least he didn’t take the side bet.”

Talbot Takes His Leave

Parker Talbot, a former 888poker pro and now part of Team PokerStars, was fairly quiet until this point, with Zamani dominating the final table. The American got another elimination when his got lucky against Francesco Macri’s , four cards coming to a straight for the American and sending Macri home with $150,890.

Soon after, king-ten beat Zamani’s jack-ten as Talbot finally proved Zamani beatable in a dominated pre-flop situation. Soon, Zamani lost again as Benvenga shoved with from the small blind and Zamani’s snap-call with saw a nine-high board reduce his pile further. Benvenga was still the next man to leave, however, as his lost to Zamani’s with all the chips committed before the flop. Once again, fortune favored Zamani as he made trip fours by the river to eliminate Benvenga for $191,375 and reduce the field to four.

Talbot it was who was unlucky enough to bust in fourth for $251,100, as players returned for a dinner break to see Zamani win with the worst of it again. All-in with , Talbot had two overcards and a flush-blocker to Zamani’s but a board of left Talbot on the outside looking in.

Deal Leads to Even Split

“In my head, I felt that this was my tournament.”

With three players left in the hunt, the stacks were even enough to agree on a very close to even split with no-one getting less than $436,000 and the winner guaranteed to top half a million dollars. Martin Zamani  had half the chips in play at one point but they went just as easily and this time when he  attempted to win when behind with , Sylvain Berthelot’s prevailed, a blank board only giving Zamani false hope to a four-flush from turn to river which never came in.

The American had left with $512,465, and heads-up, Berthelot had the lead with 130 million chips to Santiago Nadal’s 84.14m. Those chips had only evened up slightly by the time a board of landed and Berthelot shoved with the nut flush holding . Nadal had an agonizing decision to make with and made the wrong one, as his Broadway straight was flushed away, Berthelot jumping out of his seat in shock.

“It’s such a dream, I can’t believe it. I found some spots to steal the blinds. Luck, cards, I guess this tournament was for me. I said to my wife and daughters ‘I go to win’. In my head, I felt – I don’t know why – that this was my tournament.”

Berthelot turned out to be right as he put on the after-burners late and claimed victory in style in the Catalan city.