Stephen Song Takes Down the EPT Barcelona Main Event For €1,290,386

Stephen Song beat Andrew Hulme in a heads-up to become the EPT Barcelona 2024 Main Event champion and won €1,290,386. Song and Hulme made the deal, entering the heads-up battle, but there was still €56,800 and a trophy to play for. Andrew Hulme came in second place and won €1,165,614.

“You just keep showing up, and eventually, you’re just going to win, right? Just mathematically, it has to happen,” Song said after the win. “I will say that my mom said she was praying for me very hard during this tournament. I’ve been sun-running the whole seven days, so I’m definitely thankful for that.”

This win was Song’s most significant live MTT win, beating his previous $1,100 No Limit Hold’em – WPT Prime Championship event win for $712,650. Song is currently ranked 98th in the US All-Time Money List with $7,967,683 in total live earnings.

2024 EPT Barcelona Main Event Final Table Results

Place	Winner	Country	Prize (EUR)
1	Stephen Song	United States	€1,290,386*
2	Andrew Hulme	United Kingdom	€1,165,614*
3	Marius-Catalin Pertea	Romania	€674,150
4	Rania Nasreddine	United States	€518,600
5	David Coleman	United States	€398,950
6	Boris Kuzmanovic	Croatia	€306,900
7	Alexandre Fournier	Canada	€236,100
8	Jianwei Lin	China	€181,600
9	Fabiano Kovalski	Brazil	€139,750

This year, the EPT Barcelona Main Event started seven days ago, on September 2, and got 1,975 entries of €5,300 with hopes of winning the prestigious event and bringing home the trophy and €1,512,000. Out of 1,975 entries, only 628 made it to Day 2 after Day 1A and Day 1B action. There was also an 85-minute period before Day 2 where players could late reg and hop into Day 2 action, and 85 players did, so we got a final number of 713 players going into Day 2.

Registration Closing on Day 2

The generated prize pool was €9,578,750 after the registration period closed, and Kian Kiani from the UK was leading the event with 775,000 chips, which was 193 big blinds at the end of Day 2. Some familiar names who survived Day 2 were Griffin Banger, Parker Talbot, Erik Seidel, and Alexander “Wolfgang Poker” Seibt.

Waiting for Bubble to Burst on Day 3

Day 3 was the most important day for many players as this was the day when the bubble would burst, and the final 287 players who survived were getting paid a minimum of €8,700. Entering Day 3, there were 293 players left, and everybody was counting to six since that number of players separated them from the min-cash.

Players didn’t have to wait for long before Zachary Habayeb became an official bubble boy when busted with his pocket eights and left the field empty handed.

At the end of Day 3, we were left with 113 survivors, and Timothy Chung was leading the pack with 1,571,000 chips, which translated into 157 big blinds. Stephen Song was in fourth place with 1,382,000 or 138 big blinds.

Day 4 – Time to Make History

Entering Day 4, we were left with only 113 players, but only one of them had a chance to make history. Simon Wiciak won the EPT Barcelona Main Event last year, and he had a chance to be the first ever to do it twice in a row! Simon was one of 40 players left at the end of Day 4, and he was sitting on 1,300,000 chips.

Stephen Song tripled his Day 3 stack and went from fourth place to the tournament’s chip leader with 4,130,000 or 165 big blinds. Stephen had a few big spots on Day 4; one of those was when he got his pocket aces in good against Matthew Gillingham’s ace-king. He also cracked Hansen’s pocket kings when he rivered a set of jacks.

Day 5 – New Sherrif in Town

On Day 5, we saw Stephen Song continuing to run hot when he sent the chip leader of Day 3, Timothy Chung, to the rails after he cooled him the most brutal way with his pocket aces against Chung’s pocket kings.

Nasreddine, who ended Day 4 in the top 10 biggest stacks, had an absolute banger of a day. She knocked players out and made amazing bluff catches to end up on the top of the leaderboard with 7,200,000 chips or 90 big blinds, ahead of Stephen Song, who had 6,725,000 or 84 big blinds.

Only 16 players were moving into Day 6, and Govert Metaal was the shortest stack with 865,000 chips remaining.

Day 6 – Song Keeps Playing

On Day 6, Boris Kuzmanović from Croatia was the first player to break the ten million chip mark after he eliminated Zabrodotskyi.

Stephen Song came back to the top position with the stack of 15,150,000 after dropping to second position on Day 5.

We also got our final table with eight players, and only Marius-Catalin Pertea (14,575,000) and David Coleman (10,425,000) were two other players who ended Day 6 with above ten million in chips. Rania Nasreddine ended the day with 8,300,000, Andrew Hulme had 5,525,000, and Boris Kuzmanović dropped to 5,275,000.

Day 7 – Stephen Song is the New Champion

The Final Day was packed with knockouts and action, as expected. The first one to leave was Kuzmanović, who was eliminated by Nasreddine in sixth place for €306,900, the most significant win of his live MTT career.

David Coleman was the next one to leave after Hulme knocked him out in fifth place for €398.950. Right after him, Rania Nasreddine was out in fourth place, earning her €518,600.

Marius-Catalin was out in third place for €674,150 after he lost a flip against Hulme, and we were going into the heads-up match. But before the match started, two of the finalists were discussing a deal, and the deal was made. Song had a small chip lead, so he secured €1,233,586, and Hulme secured €1,165,614. There was still a trophy and €56,800 to play for.

After some action, we reached the final hand where Hulme shoved for 5,300,000 with 8♥8♦, and Song called with A♣7♥. It was looking good for Hulme on the 3♦3♦6♣ flop. The turn 4♠ was deadly for Hulme as Song hit the straight, leaving Hulme just a slight chance to split. The river 9♦ was the end of the road for Hulme, and Stephen Song was the new EPT Barcelona Main Event Champion.

* Images and hands courtesy of PokerNews.