The PokerStars Estrellas Poker Tour (ESPT) €2,200 High Roller has concluded here at the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona hosted at Casino Barcelona. Germany's Berthold Winz was the last player standing from the 26 hopefuls who made it to the final day, last defeating Ronald Steinmetz in a brief heads up duel to take home the trophy and top prize of €600,000.
Winz achieved both his second EPT trophy and career-best score with today's victory. Winz came in today with just over $150,000 in career tournament earnings and a previous career-best score of €24,400 ($32,441) from a deep run in the EPT Barcelona Main Event in 2014. He also won his first EPT trophy just last year after taking down the €1,050 No-Limit Hold'em Hyper Turbo Freezeout event during last year's EPT Barcelona for €29,940.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Berthold Winz | Germany | € 600,000 |
| 2 | Ronald Steinmetz | France | € 374,850 |
| 3 | Christophe Pommier | France | € 268,050 |
| 4 | Jan-Eric Schwippert | Germany | € 206,080 |
| 5 | Grzegorz Kozieja | Poland | € 158,500 |
| 6 | Anton Kraous | Bulgaria | € 121,750 |
| 7 | Cedric Schwaederle | France | € 93,500 |
| 8 | Hugues Girard | France | € 71,950 |
| 9 | Bernat Carreras | Spain | € 55,350 |
The ESPT High Roller attracted 2,064 entrants across two starting flights, generating a prize pool of €3,962,000. 309 of those players made it through their respective starting flights to advance to Day 2 where all were guaranteed at least a min-cash of €3,200. By the start of Day 3, only 26 players remained.
Winz began the final day as the chip leader and wasted no time reducing the field, eliminating Mitchell Garshofsky within the first 20 minutes. Meanwhile, Rania Nasreddine started the day with the second-largest stack but lost a sizable pot in the first level after running into Anton Kraous’ nut-flush. That hand saw Nasreddine’s stack cut in half and she was eliminated 40 minutes later by Winz, taking 17th place for €24,600.
Other notables to make Day 3 but fall before the final table include Cherish Andrews (13th - €35,540) and Weiran Pu (10th - €42,600). Pu was eventually eliminated on the final table bubble, which lasted nearly two hours, getting it in preflop with king-queen against Grzegorz Kozieja’s five-three suited only for Kozieja to make a flush on the turn to eliminate Pu and make way for the nine-handed final table.
Kozieja began the final table with the chip lead while Steinmetz was just behind him. Winz started the final table in the middle of the pack but quickly found himself back at the top of the counts after first eliminating Bernat Carreras in ninth place (€55,350) followed by Hugues Girard in eighth (€71,950). He then extended his chip lead over the rest of the field after a massive pot against fellow big stack Anton Kraous that saw Kraous' stack cut in half.
Cedric Schwaederle started the final table with the shortest stack but was able to ladder up two spots before he fell in seventh place in a three-way preflop collision that saw Christophe Pommier triple up. Schwaederle was followed out the door by Kraous (6th - €121,750), Kozieja (5th - €158,500) and Jan-Eric Schwippert (4th - €206,088).
Winz had a massive lead going into three-handed play and constantly pressured his other two opponents, winning pot after pot while seldom going to showdown. After being whittled down and forced to make a move, Pommier finally got his last chips in with queen-ten against Steinmetz’ ace-queen. Steinmetz held up with the best hand to enter heads-up play against Winz who held nearly a 3:1 chip advantage against his opponent.
The heads-up duel between Winz and Steinmetz was over in the blink of an eye. After conceding the blinds a few times to the ever-aggressive Winz, Steinmetz made a move at the wrong time, bluffing on the river with ace-high only to be snap-called by Winz who had made a straight on the river. That hand left Steinmetz with just over ten big blinds which Winz would take after winning one last preflop race shortly after.
That’s a wrap for the PokerNewscoverage of the PokerStars Estrellas Poker Tour High Roller. Stay tuned for updates on the EPT Main Event and other high-profile tournaments throughout the series.
