It has been a long week of poker, at least for six men who will come back to the felt on Sunday at the Casino Barcelona. The 2025 European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event has worked its way down to the final six combatants vying for one of the biggest titles on the circuit. Along with that honor of becoming the latest champion on the tour, the victor of the EPT Barcelona Main Event will take down a substantial chunk of change in the form of €1.4-plus million.
How Eleven Becomes Six
Eleven men were still in contention at the start of Saturday, including the man who had emerged from Day Four with the chip lead, Yohan Rascar, and the overnight chip leader, Anton Suarez. The significant difference between the two? Suarez enjoyed being the only man over fifteen million in chips, while Rascar’s fortunes had taken a turn for the worse as the short stack with only 1.125 million in chips.
Befitting the European Poker Tour, the survivors represented the entire continent. Three competitors hailed from France (Rascar, Youssef Zereg, and Thomas Eychenne), while two players (Cesar Garcia and Sergio Carro Marin) were defending their Spanish homeland. Toss in competitors from Romania (Sebastian Ionita), Poland (Thomasz Brzezinski), Colombia (Julian Pineda Lozano), Italy (Umberto Zaffagnini), the United Kingdom (Marc Foggin), and Sweden (Suarez), and the flags of the European continent were flying proudly on the Casino Barcelona stage.
The action got off to a brisk start. Zereg, who was the second shortest stack to start Saturday’s play, found a double after he moved all in pre-flop with A-J against Lozano’s pocket nines; Zereg would then go on to flop two Jacks for trips and rivered the case Jack for quads. The news was not as good for Rascar, however. He would call off his final chips with 9-7 after hitting a pair on the 9-2-6 flop, but Brzezinski would catch up with his K-10 on the ten turn. A blank on the river would seal Rascar’s fate, sending him from the tournament in eleventh place.
That would be the last action – as far as eliminations go – for almost two hours. Brzezinski would be responsible for bringing the field to the 2025 EPT Barcelona Main Event final table bubble when he took out Marin in what was an adventurous hand. Marin, with K-J, was outflopped by Brzezinski’s 10-6 on the 9-6-4 flop, but came back after catching a King on the turn. Just as quickly, the fortunes would change as a ten hit the river, giving the hand back to Brzezinski with his two pair over the Kings of Marin.
Three Eliminations to the End
Typically, nine people make up the final table for a tournament, but on the EPT, it is officially considered the final table when eight players remain. Thus, the table was redrawn for seats as Suarez continued to rule the court. Eychenne and Ionita were neck-and-neck for the second-place slot. Zereg, who laddered up nicely after his earlier adventures, took down the ninth-place money when his A-5 was squashed by his countryman Eychenne’s pocket sixes; a six on the flop virtually sealed Zereg’s fate, and a second seven on the river turned it into a full house to send Zereg home.
From there, two more departures needed to be booked, and Garcia was the first to go. He would fall in seventh place after Suarez spiked a ten on the river to go with his Ace for two pair against Garcia’s A-J. Right after the Garcia elimination, Foggin would be punted from the event in an ugly fashion.
Foggin would get his chips to the center against Brzezinski, and both players held Big Slick. The players prepared for a chop, but fate had other intentions. The board came down monochrome, 8♠ K♠ 2♠ and, as Brzezinski held the only spade between him and Foggin, he was the only one who had the chance to win the hand outright. A 3♠ came on the turn to seal Foggin’s fate and, to add insult to injury, a final 6♠ put an insufficient flush on the river for Foggin to go home on in seventh place.
The final six would play for another couple of hours, but it basically was shuffling chips around as they waited out the final level of the day. When the players come back to the table on Sunday at the Casino Barcelona, here is how the table stands:
1. Sebastian Ionita (Romania), 14.725 million
2. Thomas Eychenne (France), 11.375 million
3. Julian Pineda Lozano (Colombia), 9.7 million
4. Umberto Zaffagnini (Italy), 9.525 million
5. Anton Suarez (Sweden), 8.4 million
6. Tomasz Brzezinski (Poland), 7.625 million
At this point of the 2025 EPT Barcelona (blinds 100K/200K, big blind ante of 200K). it is anyone’s tournament to take. Even the short-stacked Brzezinski is a dangerous foe, holding slightly more than fifteen big blinds that anyone else on the table is going to have to respect. Look for a lot of small pots to shift chips around in the initial action tomorrow – that is, unless some big hands decide to clash.
The final table for the 2025 EPT Barcelona Main Event will begin at 1 PM (Barcelona time, 8 AM Eastern Daylight Time) and will be streamed live on the PokerStars YouTube channel until a champion is crowned. That champion will walk off with the honor of having their name placed beside such previous EPT Barcelona victors as John Juanda, Mikalai Pobal, Simon Wiciak, and Stephen Song, and grab the big check in their name for €1,436,000.
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