Thomas Eychenne was the final man standing within the EPT Barcelona Fundamental Occasion, scooping a €1,217,175 prize after making a take care of runner-up Sebastian Ionita.
This victory is the 35-year-old Frenchman’s first within the stay enviornment and virtually double his earlier largest rating when he final-tabled a $25,000 on the PokerStars Caribbean Journey in 2023. He’s additionally winner of a seven-figure prize after Leon Sturm took down final week’s €100,000 Tremendous Excessive Curler.
The two,045-player discipline constructed a prize pool of €9,918,250, shared between the highest 304 finishers.
Eychenne was naturally elated when the job was achieved, clearly struggling to comprise his feelings in his winner’s interview.
“It feels simply superb. It’s my first match win. I clearly didn’t anticipate to win when getting into a 2,000-player discipline. It’s robust to place phrases on such feelings. It’s unbelievable.
“I used to be for a few years sleeping and visualizing myself in some unspecified time in the future successful a trophy and answering questions like I’m doing now. It helped so much. I knew it might come in some unspecified time in the future. It was only a matter of time. My work paid off right this moment. Clearly, I used to be very fortunate, nevertheless it’s a fantastic accomplishment.”
Motion Recap
The EPT Barcelona Fundamental Occasion took eight days to finish, however when the gamers arrived for the ultimate day’s motion, there have been solely six contenders remaining.
Romania’s Sebastian Ionita began the day as chip chief however he was quickly nudged down the order after clashing with Eychenne who referred to as down three streets along with his two pair to beat a whiffed straight draw.
Ionita did make a fast restoration, although, hitting journey queens on the flop and getting paid by Anton Suarez.
Suarez thought he’d made a restoration of his personal just some fingers later, however his pocket queens got here unstuck in opposition to the journey fives of Eychenne to take the sector to five-handed.
The Frenchman now discovered his momentum halted fairly abruptly, hitting the skids in opposition to Umberto Zaffagnini after which Ionita twice.
Eychenne opened from the cutoff with 10♦ 8♦ and Zaffagnini got here excessive with A♥ 9♠ within the small blind.
The flop got here down 7♣ J♦ 8♣and each gamers checked.
The flip was the 10♥ and Zaffagnini wager out and Eychenne referred to as.
The river was the 7♠ and Zaffagnini now fired out a pot-sized wager leaving his opponent in a large quandary. After just a few moments of thought, Eychenne determined to fold what was the very best hand.
Eychenne did handle to get some chips again shortly after when he despatched Julian Pineda Lozano to the rail with a €379,350 prize.
Tomasz Brzezinski had been making some progress however his day got here to an finish when Zaffagnini referred to as off his beneath the gun shove with pocket tens and hit a set on the flop.
Three-handed play started with Eychenne chasing his rivals, hoping that they’d conflict and do a few of his work for him. And that, in truth, is what occurred as Zaffagnini tried an airball bluff when Ionita had a straight.
This left the Italian with a crippled stack which was totally depleted simply a few fingers later by the hands of Eychenne.
This left us with a heads-up match with the gamers sat with equal stacks however throughout the discussions for a deal we realized that Eychenne is a heads-up specialist.
So, provided that Ionita did really maintain a slender lead, the pair agreed to only chop the cash evenly with €100,000 left for the champion.
“I undoubtedly knew I had an edge when he didn’t say something once I instructed him I used to be a heads-up specialist. It’s regular. I performed numerous fingers heads-up, whether or not it’s PLO4, PLO5, Maintain’em. I’ve a greater understanding. I’ve performed a bunch greater than him.”
Ionita will need to have been glad he obtained this beneficiant deal as a result of the best way the match performed out was Eychenne skillfully stealing virtually each pot till he was holding a commanding lead.
The remaining, as they are saying, was solely a matter of method. An important career-best end result, however nonetheless a way off what his fellow Frenchman achived in Prague final 12 months when Thomas Santerne bagged three EPT occasions in per week.
EPT Barcelona Fundamental Occasion Remaining Desk Outcomes
PlacePlayerCountryPrize1Thomas EychenneFrance€1,217,175*2Sebastian IonitaRomania€1,117,175*3Umberto ZaffagniniItaly€641,2004Tomasz BrzezinskiPoland€493,2505Julian Pineda LozanoColombia€379,3506Anton SuarezSweden€291,8007Marc FogginUnited Kingdom€224,4508Cesar GarciaSpain€172,700
