Olivier Busquet Wins #EPT100 Barcelona High Roller for €896,434
After a string of runner-up finishes in major European Poker Tour events, American pro Olivier Busquet today finally won his first title after taking down the debut event of EPT100 Barcelona, the prestigious €50,000 Super High Roller event. Busquet, 32, secured the title, and a first prize of €896,434, after beating his good friend and hotel roommate Dan Colman.
Busquet has been playing EPTs for years, first coming to attention when he was runner-up in the EPT6 Grand Final High Roller for €597,000. In Season 8, he was second in the EPT Campione Main Event for €430,000 and last December, second again in the EPT10 Prague High Roller event for €257,850. At the EPT10 Grand Final Super High Roller, which Dan Colman won in May, Busquet was eighth for €241,000. He has also cashed at the PCA, EPT Deauville and NAPT Mohegan Sun as well as finishing fourth in the EPT8 London High Roller event for £171,200
Busquet, 32, said: “Honestly, it just feels so good to win. 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. Yes, we're friends but when it got to heads-up, I was rooting for myself totally.”
Online legend Colman was a relative newbie to live poker tourneys when he took down the €100k Super High Roller event in May at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final in May for €1.5m. He followed that up with a sensational $15m+ victory in the WSOP Big One for One Drop event, then came third in a $100,000 Super High Roller at the Aria. He receives €843,066 for his runner-up finish here in Barcelona after he and Colman cut a deal heads-up.
This season’s Super High Roller attracted 77 entries - 58 unique players with 19 re-entries - creating a total prize pool of €3,697,155.
The Super High Roller event was filmed for TV, with Day 2 and the final cards-up broadcast shown live on PokerStars.tv.
1. Olivier Busquet, USA, €896,434
2. Dan Colman, USA, €843,066
3. Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Russia, €473,200
4. Scott Seiver, USA, €364,200
5. Sam Trickett, UK, €288,400
6. Sven Reichardt, Germany, €225,500
7. Morten Klein, Norway, €177,500
8. Dan Shak, USA, €138,600
9. Mustapha Kanit, Italy, €105,455
10. Jake Schindler, USA, €92,400
11. Ryan Fee, USA, €92,400
EPT100, the EPT's historic 100th event, is already proving to be one of the most spectacular poker tournaments ever held, marking a milestone in the history of the European Poker Tour. Joining forces with the national Estrellas Poker Tour once again, the EPT Barcelona Poker Festival is running August 16-27, 2014 at Casino Barcelona with 44 events including the €1,100 Estrellas Main Event and the €5,300 EPT Main Event. Tomorrow, EPTLive will be showing cards-up coverage of the final table of the €1,100 Estrellas Main Event which attracted a record-breaking 2,560 entries. Huge numbers are also expected for the €5,300 EPT Main Event which starts tomorrow (August 21). EPTLive will be broadcasting live from Day 1b onwards.
