If you were the type of person who got your kicks from pitting animal versus animal in a fight to the death, the bookmaker would make the fox the odds-on favourite to kill the katz. That’s what happened when PokerStars sneaked a €25,000 No-Limit Hold’em event into the backend of their most successful European Poker Tour (EPT) stop in Barcelona.
The impromptu event attracted 60-entrants (inc. 19 re-entries), creating a prize pool of €1,440,600, and Elio Fox defeated Cary Katz, heads-up, to win the first prize of €432,190.
The win was Fox’s eleventh all-time, and his second of the year, after winning a 20-entrant $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em event during the World Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown in April. It’s also the first time the Fox has sprayed his particular scent in the Barcelona Casino, and his first European ITM finish for five-years.
Katz used Barcelona as a tasty filling for the two London crusts of Triton Million and the British Poker Open/Super High Roller Bowl. If there were a vote for the non-professional who plays more than most professionals, Katz would win it, hands down. The Poker Central co-founder is a model of consistency, and this was his fourth final table during his post-World Series of Poker (WSOP) European adventures.
It’s not often that Luc Greenwood places brother Sam in the corner, but that’s been happening of late. A third-place finish will be welcome news for the most successful Greenwood brother of the three.
Alex Foxen recently lost his #1 World Ranking in the Global Poker Index (GPI) to Stephen Chidwick, so a fourth-place finish comes in handy as he starts trekking back to the top.
Danny Tang is one of the freshest new players on the high roller scene after following up a stunning performance in the Triton Super High Roller Series in Montenegro that netted him more than $2m with his first WSOP bracelet, winning the $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em in the summer. Tang followed up his third-place finish in the €100,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super High Roller with a fifth-place finish in this one.
You can’t talk about in-form high rollers without mentioning Charlie Carrel. Doug Polk’s BFF loves the EPT. Until winning the £50,000 No-Limit Hold’em at the Triton Poker Series in London for £1.3m recently, the EPT was where he had claimed his previous two seven-figure scores. In the spring, he made the final table of four high rollers at EPT Monte Carlo, and recently finished 7/504 in the €10,300 partypoker MILLIONS Europe. Carrel added a sixth-place finish to his runner-up in the previous €25,000 event held a few days ago.
Mikalai Vaskaboinikau is an EPT reg who crushes at the Barcelona stops, and David Peters is…well…David Peters. The man ranked #6 in the Hendon Mob All-Time Money list who hasn’t won a tournament since February (god forbid), rounded out the ITM finishes with a seventh-place spot.
Here are the final table results.
Final Table Results
- Elio Fox – €432,190
- Cary Katz – €312,610
- Sam Greenwood – €201,680
- Alex Foxen – €152,700
- Danny Tang – €118,130
- Charlie Carrel – €92,200
- Mikalai Vaskaboinikau – €73,470
- David Peters – €57,620