EPT Barcelona: Berthold Winz Conquers Estrellas High Roller; Nasreddine Among Day 3 Main Event Chip Leaders

The excitement continues on  at the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona being hosted at the iconic Casino Barcelona. Germany’s Berthold Winz has added another EPT trophy and career-best score to his resume by taking down Event #21: €2,200 Estrellas High Roller. He overcame a massive field of  2,064 players, claiming his second EPT trophy and a career-best score of €600,000.

He entered the final day with the chip lead among the 26 hopefuls and was in the middle of stacks when the final table was reached. From there on, he played some top notch poker and eliminated several players such as Bernat Carreras, Anton Kraous and Ronald Steinmetz to clinch the title.  The tournament culminated with his heads-up battle against France’s Ronald Steinmetz, who could not go all the way and finished runner-up, taking home a respectable €374,850 for his efforts. This was the first live title of 2024 for Winz, who had won his first EPT trophy just last year after taking down the €1,050 No-Limit Hold’em Hyper Turbo Freezeout event at the 2023 EPT Barcelona series for €29,940.

2024 EPT Barcelona #21: €2,200 Estrellas High Roller Recap

Featuring a €2,200 buy-in, this high roller event drew 2,064 entries across two starting flights and generated a whopping prize pool of €3,962,000. Day 2 saw 309 survivors and ended with 26 players remaining in the field.

Plenty of notables cashed in between, including Noah Boeken (27th for €15,000), Daniel Rezaei (31st for €13,000), Michael Wang (52nd for €9,850), Bart Lybaert (56th for €8,550), Maria Konnikova (84th for €7,450), Alexandros Kolonias (92nd for €7,450), Kimmo Kurko (100th for €6,450), Robin Ylitalo (145th for €4,900), Kalidou Sow (185th for €4,250), Antoine Saout (199th for €4,250), Luca Moschitta (209th for €4,250), Lex Veldhuis (265th for €3,650), and Dzmitry Urbanovich (290th for €3,200).

Team India Performance

Two Indians, Krishna Madhariwar and Shyam Chhabria made it to Day 2. of the two, Madhariwar made the deepest run, finishing 137th for €5,600) – his second cash of the series. Shyam Chhabria also made his presence felt, finishing 309th place for €3,200.

Final Day Action

The third and final day started with 26 players. The action was fast and furious with eliminations coming quickly. Rania Nasreddine, who is among the chip leaders into Day 3 of the ongoing Main Event, also made it to the final day but fell a few places shy of the final table, exiting in 17th for €24,600.

 The final table was reached after the elimination of Weiran Pu who fell in tenth place for €42,600. Kozieja began the final table with the chip lead, while Winz was in the middle of the pack. Winz quickly climbed up the ladder after first eliminating Bernat Carreras in ninth place (€55,350). He opened with ace-king and Carreras three-bet shoved with pocket eights. With an ace falling on the river, Winz took down the pot and Bernat Carreras was eliminated in ninth place.

Up next, Hugues Girard and Cedric Schwaederle exited the final table, falling in eighth and seventh places respectively. Winz then scored another elimination and extended his chip lead after busting Anton Kraous whose king-four ran into Winz’s dominating pocket aces. Kraous exited in sixth place (€121,750).

Next, Grzegorz Kozieja‘s run came to a heartbreaking end in fifth place. He confidently called a shove from Christophe Pommier with pocket queens on the queen-high board. He flopped a set but Pommier rivered a flush to send Kozieja to the rail in fifth place. Up next, Jan-Eric Schwippert’s pocket sevens fell short against the pocket nines of Ronald Steinmetz, who later eliminated Christophe Pommier in third place to enter the heads-up against Winz.

Heads-up Battle

At the start of the heads-up, Winz held a commanding chip lead over Ronald Steinmetz (45.70 Million vs. 16.30 Million). Steinmetz was under pressure and he picked the wrong spot to bluff. On the board having 8c 7h 4c Qc 9s, he made a bold move with Ad 5d and Winz made a snap call with 10h Jh for a straight to cripple  Steinmetz’s stack to just ten big blinds. Finally, it all ended when Steinmetz shoved with Qs 9c and Winz called with Ah 3c. The board ran out J-J-8-A-K, giving Winz the pot and the title.

2024 EPT Barcelona €2,200 Estrellas High Roller Final Table Results (EURO)

All eyes are now on the Main Event, the crown jewel of the 2024 EPT Barcelona. The EPT Main Event, celebrating its 20th anniversary with a buy-in of €5,300, has moved into Day 3, with the bubble set to burst today.

The Main Event brought in 1,975 entries, generating a massive prize pool of €9,578,750 and making it the fourth biggest EPT Main Event. Day 3 begins today with 293 survivors from Day 2. When the bubble bursts today (Wednesday), the final 287 players are guaranteed a minimum cash of €8,700.

Leading the pack into Day 3 is Kian Kiani with a stack of 775,000.  Trailing him are Hans Erlandsson with 720,000 and Javey Timmer with 692,000.

One very notable name  in the top ten is EPT Monte Carlo Main Event third place finisher Rania Nasreddine who finished Day 2 with 609,000 chips. Fresh off her 17th place in the Estrellas High Roller, she will be eyeing her first big score in the main event.

Other notables still contention include Stephen Song (459,000), Simon Wiciak (400,000), Scott Margereson (292,000), Ramon Colillas (268,000), Byron Kaverman (240,000), Aram Zobian (193.000), David Coleman (185,000), Fintan Hand (145,000), Jack Sinclair (116,000), Harry Lodge (115,000), Niklas Astedt (107,000), PokerStars Ambasador Parker Talbot (99,000), Marle Spragg (89,000) and poker legend Erik Seidel (65,000).

Representing Team India are Sriharsha Doddapaneni and Paawan Bansal. Doddapaneni has bagged an impressive 300K chips (75 BBs), while Paawan Bansal holds a short stack of 50K chips (12.5 BBs).

2024 EPT Barcelona Main Event: End of Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts

Images & Hands Credit: PokerNews/PokerStars