Matan Bakrat Wins the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Grand Final Barcelona Warm Up
The winner of the €2,700 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Grand Final Barcelona Warm Up has been crowned. The 25-year old IT student from Canada, Matan Bakrat won his first ever live tournament for an amazing amount of €355,000 and the trophy after beating Bartlomiej Machon heads-up. Machon added another €265,000 to his already impressive list of cashes which will take him to over 2 million lifetime live earnings.
The Warm Up in the beautiful Casino Barcelona came with a guarantee of €1,000,000 but that was easily smashed due to the 749 entries which created a total prize pool of €1,816,325. Twenty players returned today having their sights set on the first-place prize but not all of them made it to the final table. Francisco Olivera bubbled the final table for €25,000, then Chris Moorman was sent to the rail with €32,000. Another Canadian, Marc-Olivier Carpentier-Perrault finished in seventh place, then Frederic Delval busted next. Evangelos Bechrakis then fell in fifth place. The man with the majority of the rail behind him was Joonas Helin who finished in fourth place. And in third place was the chip leader of Day 2, Francois Billard.
Final Result €2,700 Warm Up
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (in EUR) | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Matan Bakrat | Canada | 355,000 | 439,163 |
| 2 | Bartlomiej Machon | Poland | 265,000 | 327,826 |
| 3 | Francois Billard | Canada | 155,000 | 191,747 |
| 4 | Joonas Helin | Finland | 102,225 | 126,461 |
| 5 | Evangelos Bechrakis | Greece | 75,000 | 92,781 |
| 6 | Frederic Delval | France | 55,000 | 68,039 |
| 7 | Marc-Olivier Carpentier-Perrault | Canada | 42,000 | 51,957 |
| 8 | Chris Moorman | United Kingdom | 32,000 | 39,587 |
Action of the final day
The day started with twenty players who were all guaranteed at least €12,500 today. Short stack Smain Mamouni ran his pocket nines into the ace-queen of Machon. The ace on the flop ended Mamouni’s run in this tournament in the first half hour. Next to go was Danut Chisu who ran his ace-seven into the ace-eight of Martin Weiemann. His flopped top pair wasn’t good enough against the two pair of Weiemann. In eighteenth place was Pavel Plesuv. He shoved his king-jack into the nines of Anders Bisgaard. The jack on the flop gave him a pair but Bisgaard hit another nine on there too for a set, the turn gave Plesuv some hope as he now had two pair but the river didn’t give him the king or jack he needed. Morten Christensen burst the bubble yesterday but was now sent to the payout desk in seventeenth place. His ace-queen couldn’t win against the pocket treys of Weiemann.
Just after the final sixteen players were redrawn to the final two table, Richard Dromzee left the stage when he ran his ace-queen into the nine-eight of Olivera who managed to hit trip nines. Anthony Andreou’s time was up next when he ran his king-queen into the ace-eight of Bechrakis. Aleksandr Orlov was sent to the rail after his ace-four failed to win against the ace-king of Bakrat. Bisgaard, from Denmark, busted shortly after when his pocket queens failed to hold against the ace-jack of Billard. At almost the same time Weiemann found his Waterloo when he ran his ace-queen into the pocket sevens of Billard.
After several double-ups of the other players, the last female standing Aylar Lie from Norway ran ace-king into the aces of Moorman. Even though she flopped a king, no further help arrived on the turn nor river and she finished in eleventh place. Next to break was Christopher Andler ran his pocket treys into the ace-queen of Machon. He was fine until his pair got counterfeited on the turn. With his elimination, the nine remaining players all moved onto one table. Olivera bubbled the final table when his shove was met by a shove of Helin. Olivera’s ace-queen didn’t win against the kings of Helin.
Moorman was the first to leave the official final table having doubled Helin up twice first. He ran ace-five into the king-nine of Bakrat who first hit a nine on the flop and then completed the picture by hitting a straight on the river. Carpentier-Perrault’s queen-four went through a bit of a roller coaster when he ran them into the ace-eight of Delval. Delval and Carpentier-Perrault flopped a pair, and Carpentier-Perrault turned two pair but then Delval rivered the higher two pair. Delval fell next though with king-five against the queen-four of Bakrat.
Bechrakis then ran queen-ten into the ace-nine of Machon and didn’t get any help from the board in the end. Helin ran ace-jack into the ace-nine of Bakarat with Bakrat hitting a nine on the flop. He left the tournament area quickly and took the loud rail with him. Chip leader of Day 2, Billard, shoved his queen-jack on the turn into the eight-seven of Bakrat who had a straight. No improvement for Billard and he would have to leave Machon and Bakrat to battle it out for the title.
After a break Bakrat and Machon discussed a deal and came to an agreement. The winner had to continue playing for €40,000 but Bakrat was guaranteed at least €315,000 and Machon agreed to take €265,000 for now. After a few hands back and forth, Machon finally got it in with ace-queen against the ace-ten of Bakrat. Bakrat flopped two pair immediately and the ten on the river filled the full house to deliver Bakrat his first ever live tournament win.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to provide you with all the action for the remainder of the week.