EPT Barcelona Champion Olivier Busquet Wins $1.2 Million Prize

It took three days for the best two players to eliminate their rivals, and the final battle brought the winner almost $1.2 million.

Hosted at a famous Spanish poker room in Barcelona, the 2014 European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona EUR 50,000 super high roller tournament drew a record-number of players to the field, with 77 entries. The total prize pool added up to EUR 3.7 million.

After three days of intense play, Olivier Busquet and Daniel Colman were the last ones at the final table. Colman took second place with $1,120,186 and won 595 player points. Now he is in ninth place in the overall Player of the Year leader board, and has a total of $19,534,058 in live tournament earnings. Busquet, the big winner, left the tournament with $1,191,096 in his pocket.

A long-expected win

Payouts awarded at the final table:

1. Olivier Busquet – $1,191,096
2. Daniel Colman – $1,120,186
3. Vladimir Troyanovsky – $628,743
4. Scott Seiver – $483,914
5. Sam Trickett – $383,199
6. Sven Reichardt – $299,623
7. Morten Klein – $235,845
8. Daniel Shak – $184,159

As soon as they were the only two players left at the table, Busquet and Colman agreed to a deal heads-up that left the former with EUR866,434 and the latter with EUR843,066.

At the beginning of the battle for the title, Busquet had a slight chip advantage, which pushed him closer to the big prize. The game ended with the 32-year-old pro earning EUR 896,434, as well as 714 Card Player Player of the Year points.

“Honestly, it just feels so good to win,” he told reporters. “I have had a bunch of second places on the EPT so to win one feels amazing.”

“Dan is probably the best heads-up player in the world but obviously anything could happen,” Busquet said about his opponent. “Yes, we’re friends but when it got to heads-up, I was rooting for myself totally.”

Master and apprentice

In the world of high-stakes heads-up sit-n-go poker, Olivier Busquet – who goes by “livb112” on online poker sites in America – is a well-respected player.

He is known among his fellow poker players for being the first one to ever cash in $1 million in this format. Furthermore, he reached $2 million in total earnings before another player managed to match his first million-dollar benchmark.

Another respected poker pro and Busquet’s former protégé, Daniel “mrgr33n13” Colman has built an impressive career. Busquet took him under his wing after noticing he was calling out his hands correctly and looking into his results. He decided to offer him coaching and staking, and eventually they became close friends.

It turns out Busquet was right about Colman, because the young player soon went on to become a legend himself. He set his own record when he became the first player to win seven figures in one year at heads-up sit-and-go.

Over the past few years, both players have had great results in live events as well. Colman has had a great year so far, managing to make his way to four final tables and winning two titles before the beginning of this game. Colman won first place at the $1 million buy-in Big One For One Drop, as well as the EPT Grand Final EUR 100,000 super high roller. These brought him over $17.4 million.

An important year in the history of EPT

This year, the EPT celebrates its 100th event in Barcelona. This popular tournament is one of the few stops that have appeared on all seasons of EPT. The big poker race started on August 16 and will go on until August 27.

The event includes several popular tournaments, including the Estrellas Main Event, Barcelona Poker Cup, along with Omaha, Turbo, PLO and cash games.