High Roller starts at EPT Barcelona, while big names hit high notes across the schedule
With three days left of the EPT Barcelona festival, the €10K High Roller is just getting started. It always ushers in mixed emotions: at the same time that it indicates a festival gradually winding down, it also injects fresh life into proceedings as hundreds turn up to play once again.
The continuing success of the High Roller is one of those things we now take for granted on the EPT. There was a time when a €10,000 buy-in was considered enormous, which always made it especially amazing that so many people played it here in Barcelona. But the sheer number of tournaments on the EPT schedule, including so many now with five-figure buy-ins, means the official High Roller has slipped back into the pack somewhat.
But just look at the numbers over the years, in particular the boom that happened from around 2014 onwards.
EPT BARCELONA €10K HIGH ROLLER HISTORY
2010: 38 entries, €380,000 prize pool, Fernando Brito (Portugal) for €127,500
2011: 67 entries, €670,000 prize pool, Philipp Gruissem (Germany) for €234,500
2012: 111 entries, €1,087,800 prize pool, Laurent Polito (France) for €270,229
2013: 180 entries, €1,764,000 prize pool, Thomas Muehloecker (Austria) for €390,700
2014: 393 entries, €3,851,400 prize pool, Ihar Soika (Belarus) for €747,200
2015: 506 entries, €4,908,200 prize pool, Mustapha Kanit (Italy) for €738,759
2016: 591 entries, €5,732,300 prize pool, Connor Drinan (USA) for €849,200
2017: 557 entries, €5,402,900 prize pool, Ronny Kaiser (Switzerland) for €735,000
2018: 439 entries, €4,258,300 prize pool, Max Silver (UK) for €600,924
2019: 540 entries, €5,238,000 prize pool, Chris Hunichen (USA) for €841,345
2022: 530 entries, €5,141,000 prize pool, Rui Ferreira (Portugal) for €767,750
2023: 475 entries, €4,607,500 prize pool, Ka Kwan Lau (Spain) for €910,400
2024: 431 entries, €4,180,700 prize pool, Mike Watson (Canada) for €595,025
Registration closes on that tournament at start of play tomorrow, at which point we’ll know how big this year’s event is set to be. But in the meantime, it’s worth taking a look around the rest of the festival and pulling out details of some other notable achievements.
A FOUR-TIME BRIDESMAID
Given the fact that he hasn’t actually won an event, this has been a fairly spectacular trip to Barcelona for David Coleman.
Having had his Barcelona appetite whetted by a fifth-placed finish in the Main Event last year, the American pro returned this time and played a full schedule. And he finished runner-up in a remarkable four events: the $5K Mystery Bounty, the €20K NLHE, the €30K Super High Roller Warm-Up and the €100K Super High Roller proper.
He won incrementally more at each tournament, for a combined haul of more than $2 million.
No title but a stellar week for David Coleman
No other player has hit quite such heights as Coleman on this trip, but there have been a number of very familiar faces making characteristic waves.
MOKRI NEEDS A SECOND CHANCE THIS TIME
Before Leon Sturm defeated Coleman heads up in this year’s Barcelona €100K, this tournament had belonged to Kayhan Mokri. Mokri won the event in both 2023 and 2024, recording an unprecedented title defence.
Although Mokri fell short of a Super High Roller hat-trick, he did manage to win the €50K Super High Roller Second Chance event, for a tidy €520,900. There were 35 entries and a smaller buy-in than the real big one, but Mokri’s spectacular affinity for this venue continues. He just needed two bites at the cherry this time.
Another Barcelona success for Kayhan Mokri
The other notable force in the high buy-in events this week has been the Thai wizard Punnat Punsri. Punsri won the €10K Mystery Bounty (beating Coleman heads-up), chopped another €25K buy-in event with Sam Mullur (and took more than the winner from the deal), finished sixth in the €100K and eighth in another €25K. That’ll do nicely for him.
Pieter Aerts won the last of the aforementioned tournaments, padding his bankroll by €475,000.
Punnat Punsri brought good form to Barcelona
HUGE NAMES AND MIXED GAMES
There was also €502,648 for the winner of the enormous €2,700 buy-in PokerStars Open High Roller, which attracted a spectacular field of 1,728 entries. Somehow this all got done in two days of play, by which point Finland’s Eero Abbey had all the chips.
Abbey was a PokerStars qualifier to the EPT Main Event and although he fell short of the money in the flagship tournament, it’s clear he’s going to have enjoyed this trip to Barcelona nonetheless.
The full EPT schedule now caters to players who favour all kinds of events, thanks in no small part to the lobbying from some of PokerStars’ healthy contingent of mixed games aficionados.
Those players have duly supported the events with healthy turnouts, and arguably their brightest-shining star, Benny Glaser, got his hands on another Spadie trophy here. The WCOOP and SCOOP superstar won the €5,200 T.O.R.S.E. event, earning €70,250.
The always brilliant Benny Glaser
The five-game T.O.R.S.E. mix eschews hold’em entirely, with the rotation featuring 2-7 Triple Draw, Omaha Hi/Low, Razz, Stud and Stud Hi/Low, all played as a limit game. Glaser, of course, is a master of all of them, and this was his 10th win in EPT side events. It’ll go nicely with his eight World Series bracelets, 11 SCOOP titles and 15 WCOOP successes.
At time of writing, Glaser is in the Day 2 field of the €2K 9-Game, another tournament he is surely among the favourites to win.
The EPT High Roller is Event #55 on the schedule. The highest number is #69. It means there’s still plenty of play left in this festival yet.
See all the tournament results from across EPT Barcelona
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