Sebastian Malec: Champion!

For 13 years, the net tables of PokerStars has been both breeding ground and springboard for achievement within the most prestigious live poker tournaments within the world--specifically those of the eu Poker Tour.

It is solely fitting, then, that during the year that the EPT as we all know it visits Barcelona for the overall time, a 21-year-old Polish player named Sebastian Malec has become its final champion. Like thousands of players before him, Malec qualified for the €5,300 Main Event for peanuts and turned it right into a life-changing pay-day.

It cost Malec precisely €27 to go into that online satellite. Today he picked up €1,122,800 and a trophy that may be nearly the scale he's. It was hugely emotional too.

"It means everything to me," he said. "It feels good, definitely good. The cash is amazing, of course, but heads up it's all concerning the trophy."

On the general hand, Malec wandered clear of the table while his heads up opponent, Uri Reichenstein, pondered a decision that might end the tournament. Then, learning that Reichenstein had put the chips over the line, Malec sprinted back to show over a winning flush, leapt up and down at the spot, and commenced weeping. They were tears of pure joy.

Although the EPT is re-branding on the end of this calendar year, it's going to return to Barcelona as a PokerStars Championship event, and one suspects that Malec will quickly become a fixture on this environment. And an organization favourite.

A self-confessed poker fan-boy, Malec was only 9-years-old when the EPT played its first tournament here in Barcelona. But he matured alongside the tour: learning the sport from his chess instructor, visiting an EPT event in London many years ago, trading checkered board for cards and chips after which finding himself in line for the title today. And when he closed it out, he was delirious.

Sebastian Malec salutes his crowd

In order to secure the trophy, he needed to beat another graduate from the net tables. Reichenstein, 28, is a former winner of scores of online tournaments, including the Sunday Million and Super Tuesday. Although he was appearing within the deep stages of an EPT event for the primary time, Reichenstein showed the nous of a tournament veteran. He's the very epitome of the type of poker star that has become some dominant in the course of the decade that the EPT has risen to preeminence.

Uri Reichenstein: Brilliant, but second

Reichenstein pinched the chip lead late last night when he put the squeeze on a couple of less experienced players on the table. Then he picked his spots throughout an 11-hour final today to steer after they got heads up. But having beaten all but certainly one of this record-breaking 1,785-player field, he couldn't beat the young Malec.

Heads up for the title

To get there took some grinding from either one of these guys.

Play at the penultimate day resulted in the small hours of Sunday morning with Harcharan Dogra Dogra, the last remaining Spanish player, opting to not commit his final seven big blinds to a pot against Reichenstein. "Tomorrow," he said, apparently happy to go back to a tiny stack at the last day in preference to risk missing out entirely. It meant he got to return to pose for the general group shot.

Final seven in Barcelona (l-r): Andreas Chalkiadakis, Adam Owen, Thomas De Rooij, Harcharan Dogra Dogra, Uri Reichenstein, Sebastian Malec, Zorlu Er

However it also meant that although he could return to his home casino with a faithful band of supporters, they all knew he could be up against it. The cards didn't help him out in his bid to get something going, and when he posted a large blind and had only five more behind, he was given the mighty 3♥2♣.

All of the remainder of his chips went in when there has been a deuce at the flop, but by the point the river was out, Thomas De Rooij's A♥4♠ had improved to a couple of fours and Dogra Dogra was out. He won €230,950.

Harcharan Dogra Dogra, right, heads home

The early stages of the overall table were brutal on greater than just Dogra Dogra. Adam Owen, for thus long a chip leader yesterday, couldn't get any hand to carry up and he dwindled all the way down to about 30 big blinds after losing a chain of small pots.

But then he sighted a possibility to play a large one after Andreas Chalkiadakis three-bet shoved after another open from De Rooij and Owen found A♣Q♣ within the big blind.

Owen pondered for some time. He was running cold and gave the look to be curious about De Rooij sitting behind him. But eventually he re-shoved, De Rooij folded and Owen had chosen the proper move. Chalkiadakis had K♥Q♠ and Owen had made an unbeatable full house by the turn.

Chalkiadakis picked up €330,290 but won't remember the general fondly. He played just one hand: the one who knocked him out.

Andreas Chalkiadakis: Good humour, but bad day

With five players left, there has been something of an imbalance. All of Owen, De Rooij, Reichenstein and Malec, who had the chip-lead, are either fully fledged professionals or in an effort to it, while Zorlu Er, also still involved at that stage, was a pure recreational on a heater.

Er had refused to be bullied through five days of competition, though, taking his own time to make every decision despite the fact that it got under the surface of a few of his more matured opponents. But that made all of it the more mystifying when his tournament came to an lead to arguably the quickest hand he had played all week.

Er defended his big blind with A♠J♣ after Reichenstein opened together with his T♦4♦. But Reichenstein flopped a flush and Er top pair when the A♦K♦3♦ appeared. Reichenstein didn't stop betting from there, putting in place a shove at the river, and Er was unable to seek out a fold.

That was that for Er, who won €431,550 for fifth.

Zorlu Er: Fast finish in fifth

Reichenstein took the chip lead back with the elimination of Er, and the four players agreed to try the numbers in a tentative bid to see a chop. There has been still greater than €3 million at the line, and a few deep stacks, but they may not get a hold of a deal that suited all of them. They played on.

"I want more... you wish to have more? Okay, let's play."

They usually played on. And they played on.

The stacks at this stage were just a matter a couple of blinds apart and every of the remainder quartet had shown ample aptitude to make smart decisions. The primary man to actually put distance between himself and the pack was Malec, who won a sequence of pots against all comers, but then Reichenstein hit back with a huge double up through Owen.

Reichenstein found kings and disguised it well. Owen had K♦Q♣ and a queen came at the flop. Reichenstein completed an entire double-up to position him way out in front and leave Owen with the fast stack.

However it was De Rooij who perished next. In a bid to eliminate Owen, De Rooij open-shoved with Q♥7♥ from the small blind, attacking Owen's big. Owen made a marginal--but marginally correct--call with K♠2♠ and faded outs to double, leaving De Rooij perilously short.

When he got his last three big blinds in with A♠7♣, he couldn't beat Reichenstein's J♠3♦ when a 3 came at the flop. De Rooij had essentially the most vocal of all of the rails within the room, but they were silenced as they swept their man to the payouts desk in search of €535,100.

Thomas De Rooij: Slipped away in fourth

Owen still did not have a huge stack despite the double up and, similar to his beloved Tottenham Hotspur, his tournament ended with him in third place within the league table.

It was actually the very next hand after De Rooij was knocked out when Owen handed his 5.6 million chips to Malec, unable to overcome A♦8♦ with Q♦J♠. Owen was the dominant force on this tournament for the majority of yesterday and demonstrated that he has a superb hold'em game to compare his mixed game prowess. Third was worth €646,250.

Adam Owen and his supporters watch his demise

That brought them to heads up and a slight lead for Reichenstein. But with nearly 180 big blinds between them, it was worth settling in.

It was an intriguing heads up battle: the seasoned online pro taking up the young upstart. Reichenstein has has won just about the entire major tournaments online, but although Malec is solely recently graduated from the chess tables, he's following the likes of his countrymen Dominik Panka and Dzmitry Urbanovich to an EPT final table.

No Polish player has ever lost heads up at a chief Event final table, and Malec didn't seem prepared to become the primary. He wouldn't surrender because the chip lead swung both ways.

There were many, many pots that fizzled out, but a couple of humdingers. In one, Reichenstein bluffed with queen-high into Malec's quads; in another he filled an inside straight at the river and worth shoved. It got paid off.

Uri Reichenstein, finally worn down

Reichenstein was absolutely motionless on the table, but Malec was your entire opposite, bouncing up and down out of his chair and playing a minimum of an hour standing up. He talked to himself, sometimes he sung to himself, he sucked on a straw, he ordered more drinks.

It seemed every now and then as if he was slightly melting down, however it was also clear that he was keeping his wits about him. "My happiness grows exponentially the longer we play," he said. He couldn't get enough.

When he got super short, he managed to search out another double and keep it going beyond midnight. After which he continued to battle until his A♥3♥ made a flush on a board of J♠6♥Q♥8♥8♦. It was rough for Reichenstein. He had a straight.

That proved to be the decisive moment. A shell-shocked and exhausted Reichenstein finally succumbed, leaving another extraordinary young talent under the ticker tape, hoisted aloft by his friends.

Sebastian Malec: On top of the world

Read the blow-by-blow account to peer how this all played out.

EPT13 Main EventDate: August 22-28, 2016Buy-in: €5,000 + €300Players: 1,785Prize-pool: €8,925,000

1 - Sebastian Malec, Poland, €1,122,8002 - Uri Reichenstein, Germany, €807,1003 - Adam Owen, United Kingdom, €646,2504 - Thomas De Rooij, Netherlands, €535,1005 - Zorlu Er, Turkey, €431,5506 - Andreas Chalkiadakis, Greece, €330,2907 - Harcharan Dogra Dogra, Spain, €230,9508 - Pavel Plesuv, Moldova, €165,950

Click for full list of Main Event prizewinners

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: European Poker Tour]