Joao Barbosa Celebrates 26th Birthday With Big Poker Win at EPT

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 the $457,489 first prize.

Barbosa is 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."