The 2022 European Poker Tour Barcelona €5,300 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event attracted a record field of 2,294 entries to the Casino Barcelona, creating a prize pool of more than $11.3 million for the largest EPT main event in history.
After two starting flights and five more days of intense action, Italy’s Giuliano Bendinelli emerged victorious as this year’s champion.
“I can’t believe it. It’s the best day of my life. I’m speechless,” Bendinelli told after coming out on top.
The 31-year-old hardly had an easy road to the title. In fact, at one point during six-handed play, he was down to just more than a single big blind. He managed to spin that short stack back up and take down his first EPT title and the top prize of more than $1.5 million.
“I can’t believe it happened today. I’m proud about how I played, but I also won some showdowns, I’m grateful to be here.” Bendinelli said when asked about his ‘chip-and-a-chair’ comeback.
This was by far the largest score yet on Bendinelli’s tournament resume, blowing away the $131,125 he earned as the winner of the ‘Monaco Cup’ side event at the 2013 EPT Grand Final Monte Carlo. He now has nearly $2.4 million in lifetime tournament cashes to his name.
In addition to the money and the title, Bendinelli also secured 2,160 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his first qualified score of the year, but it alone was enough to catapult him into 66th place in the 2022 POY race sponsored by Global Poker.
The huge turnout for this event resulted in the top 328 players making the money. Plenty of big names made deep runs, including 2018 World Series of Poker Europe main event winner Jack Sinclair (78th), bracelet winner Harry Lodge (68th), bracelet winner Jaspal Brar (60th), 2021 champion of this same event Simon Brandstrom (53rd), two-time bracelet winner Michael Wang (44th), 2005 EPT Copenhagen main event winner Noah Boeken (42nd), 2018 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure winner Maria Lampropulos (36th), 2017 PokerStars Championship Prague winner Kalidou Sow, Jack Salter (15th), and 2018 World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown champion Scott Margereson (8th).
The final day began with just six players remaining, with Patrik Jaros in the lead and Bendinelli in fourth chip position. He moved into the lead, while Kovalsi took home $582,238 as the fourth-place finisher
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