There was a moment during yesterday's penultimate day of the Estrellas Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event when eventual heads-up opponents Mohamed Samri of France and Teunis Kooij of the Netherlands got concerned about a four-bet pot followed by a large flop bet by Samri.

The pair chatted a bit, with Kooij asking if Samri spoke English and Samri asking Kooij if he spoke French. Neither knew an excessive amount of of the other's language, but if Kooij folded his hand and Samri showed his king-high, it was clear they were communicating well.

"Ooh, la la," said Samri. "Well played," said Kooij with a grin. 

It seems almost appropriate, then, that the general day of the tournament that drew a record 3,447 players would end somewhat similarly -- with Samri and Kooij coming to an agreement regarding a heads-up deal, then a few big hands between them to determine things.

Samri came away with the trophy and a €353,220 payday, while Kooij earned a bit of more of the prize pool -- €372,060 -- by virtue of getting a lead when heads-up began. Each enjoyed enormous returns on a €1,100 investment, the price of the buy-in for this kickoff event of EPT Season 13 and last Main Event for the Estrellas Poker Tour's Season 7.

Mohamed Samri - ESPT Barcelona Main Event champion

Those 3,447 entrants meant a prize pool of €3,343,590, divided a number of the top 695 finishers. After three Day 1 flights -- each bigger than the last -- the bubble burst on Day 2, then Day 3 saw the sphere carved all the way down to nine without any instead of the UK's Chris Moorman, online tournament poker's biggest winner, carrying the chip result in begin the overall day.

The pace was slow to start, with Moorman and Kooij between them every now and then having nearly half the chips in play while everyone else battled with below average stacks. 

Ireland's Daniel Wilson was the primary of these short stacks to fall in ninth after running ace-queen into his fellow countryman Nicholas Newport's ace-king.

Daniel Wilson - 9th place

Lars Farstad of Norway followed in eighth, also being failed by ace-queen when it couldn't outrun Kooij's pocket nines.

Lars Farstad - 8th place

The Frenchman Jerome Brion had begun Day 3 with the chip lead, but he entered the last day at the short side and within the third hour finally fell, his ace-ten not holding up when Kooij outdrew him with king-queen.

Jerome Brion - 7th place

Kooij's early success today enabled him to wrest the chip lead from Moorman, and he remained away from the sphere even after Moorman knocked out Switzerland's Jean-Marc Bellini in sixth. In Bellini's last hand he'd picked up ace-jack, but unfortunately bumped into Moorman's pocket kings to be sent railward.

Jean-Marc Bellini - 6th place

Marius Enebakk of Norway had laddered up successfully along with his short stack, but finally ran out of luck in a cruelish hand versus Moorman. They made it to the activate a queen-high board before Enebakk was all-in with queen-jack against Moorman's queen-ten. But a 10 at the river meant two pair for Moorman, and so they were right down to four.

Marius Enebakk - 5th place

Newport then found himself hanging on with a brief stack for some time before finally falling with queen-jack versus Kooij's pair of fours.

Nicholas Newport - 4th place

Observers could have been forgiven during three-handed play to not have expected Samri to be the only ultimately to emerge victorious. After all, he was the fast stack for far of the trio's duel, only managing to climb back closer following a double through Moorman.

Soon after -- and dramatically -- Moorman lost the vast majority of his stack after four-bet jamming pocket sixes and running smack into Kooij's pocket queens. Right down to three big blinds, the remainder went to Kooij at the next hand, and suddenly Moorman was out in third.

Chris Moorman - 3rd place

That's when the amiable Kooij and joyful Samri -- the latter being visibly ecstatic by the surprising knockout of Moorman -- made their deal, with Kooij enjoying a chip lead for the deal-making and to begin heads-up play.

Playing it Kooij

 

Kooij even posed for an image with Samri taken by the Frenchmen's friends at the rail, with both signaling thumbs-up for what had turned out to be a successful endgame.

Following the deal, heads-up was over quickly.

Two players, one trophy

There was one big double for Samri with pocket deuces versus ace-queen, then Samri wat the last of Kooij's chips after the latter committed on the turn with a flush draw versus Samri's top pair and the river blanked. It was a super run for the Dutchman, ending only one spot shy of the title.

  

Teunis Kooij - 2nd place

After Samri had won, the rail exploded with excitement and the players shared hugs. 

Congrats and kudos

Ooh la la, what a finish. And well played, both.

Here's how the overall table payouts went, and you'll also click the header below for an entire list of who cashed:

ESPT Barcelona Main Event final table resultsBuy-in: €1,100Entries: 3,447Prize pool: €3,343,590

1st: Mohamed Samri (France) €353,220*2nd: Teunis Kooij (Netherlands) €372,060*3rd: Chris Moorman (UK) €241,3004th: Nicholas Newport (Ireland) €202,4205th: Marius Enebakk (Norway) €163,8006th: Jean-Marc Bellini (Switzerland) €125,4507th: Jerome Brion (France) €87,3508th: Lars Farstad (Norway) €62,300*denotes two-way deal

Relive all six days of live updates and photos to boot here: 

• Day 1a• Day 1b• Day 1c• Day 2• Day 3• Final Day

Thanks for following our coverage of the ESPT7 Barcelona Main Event. And persist with us all week for a lot more from EPT13 Barcelona!

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Take a glance on the official website of the EPT, with tournament schedule, news, results and accommodation details for EPT13 Barcelona and the remainder of the season.

Also all of the schedule information is at the EPT App, that is available on both Android or IOS.

Photography by René Velli and Carlos Monti. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter @PokerStarsBlog.

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