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JOÃO BARBOSA WINS POKERSTARS.COM EPT POLISH
OPEN
WARSAW, Poland, November 19, 2008 – After four days of fast
and furious poker action at the PokerStars.com EPT Polish Open,
it was Portugal’s João Barbosa who celebrated his 26th
birthday by winning the Warsaw champion title and €367,140
first prize.
Barbosa – the first EPT winner from Portugal - was playing
against an exceptionally strong field in Warsaw including ten former
EPT champions. The final table started with several established
stars still in contention including Team PokerStars Pro Dario Minieri
and Arnaud Mattern.
Minieri, from Rome, had been hoping to better his EPT Season 3
Baden and Season 4 San Remo finishes - but was beaten into third
place yet again. Arnaud Mattern, who won EPT Prague last season,
had been gunning to become the first ever player to win two EPT
titles but his hopes were dashed when Barbosa knocked him out in
fifth place.
Barbosa, a former computer engineering student, has only played
four EPTs so far and cashed in three of them. His victory today
came after a fiercely-contested, three-hour heads-up battle against
the 23-year-old German Nico Behling.
Barbosa, from Porto, said: “Things worked perfectly for me.
For three hours, I was trying not to think about anything but winning.
It’s the best birthday present I’ve ever had. It was
great to win.”
See PokerStars.tv to hear Barbosa’s thoughts on winning EPT
Warsaw: http://www.pokerstars.tv/movies/4FK/ept-warsaw-08-the-winner-of-the-final-table.html
The 21,000 Zloty buy-in event (approximately €5,200) at Casinos
Poland at the Hyatt Regency attracted 217 entrants, including 48
who won their seats online with PokerStars. Three qualifiers made
it to the final table: Atanas Gueorguiev, from Bulgaria, who came
fourth, Russian Sergey Shcherbatskiy (6th) and Michael Muheim from
Switzerland (9th). Shcherbatskiy earned his trip to Warsaw for a
mere $7.50 after working his way up the PokerStars' steps satellites.
For further information on the final tablists please see http://www.europeanpokertour.com/warsaw/players/index.html
A wealth of stars were also competing in Poland including Team
PokerStars Pros Isabelle Mercier – who came 16th for €10,557
– Gavin Griffin, Marcin Horecki, Bertrand “ElkY Grospellier,
Luca Pagano, William Thorson, Alex Kravchenko and Katja Thater.
The PokerStars sponsored players Juan Manuel Pastor from Spain and
Julien Lang Van from France also cashed.
The EPT founder John Duthie said: “Warsaw has always been
a popular stop on the EPT train and this has been no exception.
It was a particularly high quality final table and another five
days of excellent poker.”
About PokerStars:
PokerStars is the world’s largest poker room with over 15
million members worldwide, and more free-to-play tables than any
other site, At PokerStars.net players learn how to play, and practice
poker skills for free. As the premier destination for the top players,
with numerous tournaments running every day, PokerStars is renowned
for offering the best software and security in the online poker
world.
PokerStars;
* Has dealt over 20 billion hands
* Has run more than 100 million poker tournaments
* Entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the first and only
poker website to reach the 160,000 simultaneous players mark
PokerStars is the official sponsor of: The European Poker Tour
(www.ept.com), PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Latin American Poker
Tour (www.lapt.com), Asia Pacific Poker Tour (www.appt.com) and
The World Cup of Poker.
PokerStars is the home of Team PokerStars Pro, a group of 30 veteran
and up-and-coming players from around the world who play online
at PokerStars and are sponsored by the site in international tournaments
around the world. For more information please visit www.pokerstars.net. |
