As the main tournament room became increasingly empty heading into the wee hours of the morning, Ottomar Ladva looked as fresh and sharp as he did when he first entered €25,000 No-Limit Hold'em II. It was readily apparent that Ladva set his sights on winning the final high-roller of the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona.
Following a marathon 13-hour day, the focused 27-year-old did just that after besting a 60-entry field and defeating Artsiom Lasouski heads-up to claim his third EPT title. Ladva also claimed the €439,400 first-place prize, representing the lion's share of the €1,440,600 prize pool.
Ladva solidified his poker prowess by overcoming the expert-laden field, which included the likes of poker crushers such as Patrik Antonius, Nick Petrangelo, Mike Watson, and Sam Greenwood.
Before turning to poker, Ladva achieved chess grandmaster status and won four Estonian Chess Championship titles. His latest victory pushed his live-tournament earnings beyond €1,000,000, a milestone that seems only temporary as the young Estonian continues his rapid ascent up the poker ranks.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ottomar Ladva | Estonia | €439,400 |
| 2 | Artsiom Lasouski | Belarus | €288,100 |
| 3 | James Collopy | United States | €208,900 |
| 4 | Mathew Frankland | United Kingdom | €158,500 |
| 5 | Sam Greenwood | Canada | €122,500 |
| 6 | Biao Ding | China | €93,600 |
| 7 | Michel Molenaar | Netherlands | €72,000 |
| 8 | Stoyan Madanzhiev | Bulgaria | €57,600 |
Following a short delay, just five players had taken their seats to start the day in what looked like might be a modest high-roller event. However, the big money players didn't take long to find their way to the tournament room. By the time late registration closed, 60 entrants had joined the fray, surpassing the 46 entrants that the first edition of this tournament attracted just one week ago.
Leonard Maue, who chopped the €50k High Roller Second Chance earlier in the series, hopped out to an early chip lead after doubling up through Jules Dickerson and then catching a big bluff from Jean-Noel Thorel. However, Maue could not hold onto that momentum and busted shy of the money after getting short and calling all in preflop with a suited connector against Greenwood's ace-jack and failing to improve.
Several players took advantage of the option to max late-reg at the end of Level 10, including a mix of newcomers such as Ren Lin, Antonius, and Erik Seidel in addition to some reentrants. While most of these players met an early demise, Greenwood managed to build a massive stack in short order — first by doubling up through Derk van Luijk with jacks and then by picking off a massive semi-bluff from Vito Jhonny Recchimurzo Diaz a while later.
The eliminations came at a furious pace, with more than half of the remaining field getting sent out between the time late registration ended and dinner break began. Among those who fell short of the money were Lin, Jesse Lonis, Sean Winter, Brock Wilson, and Jules Dickerson.
Mathew Frankland received a huge boost to his stack after scoring a double knockout on the last hand before dinner break. Vladimir Korzinin shoved blind and Mikael Thuritz also went all in with pocket kings. Frankland called, having both players covered, with ace-queen, and flopped an ace to emerge as one of the chip leaders.
A final table of nine convened following a few more eliminations, including Petrangelo, who bubbled the final table after shoving preflop with ace-trey and getting called by Ladva with a dominating ace.
The money bubble burst dramatically after Antonius found himself on the wrong end of a brutal cooler. Antonius and James Collopy (who both had big stacks) got into a pre-flop raising war that ended with Antonius all in with pocket kings against Collopy's pocket aces. The Finnish poker legend failed to improve and remained classy, wishing everyone good luck despite his elimination.
Stoyan Madanzhiev, Michel Molenaar, and Biao Ding were the short stacks entering the final table and were single-handedly eliminated by Lasouski in eighth, seventh, and sixth place respectively after shoving preflop and ending up second-best.
Greenwood rode his healthy stack well into the final table but eventually ran out of steam and was forced to surrender the rest of his chips to Frankland after shoving with a dominated ace against Frankland.
With ever-escalating blinds, many hands became largely preflop affairs, resulting in shoves. Frankland was no exception and ended up in fourth place after shoving with king-five against Collopy's ace-eight in a blind versus blind confrontation.
Collopy was poised to run away with the chip lead at that point and even had Ladva one card away from elimination. However, Ladva instead managed to double up through Collopy and then take the rest of his chips after coming from behind with six-five suited against Collopy's ace-ten to set up the heads-up play.
Lasouski entered heads-up at a significant chip disadvantage but managed to double up through Ladva to pull nearly even several hands into their heads-up battle. It turned out to be Ladva's day, though, as just a few hands after that, Lasouski shoved with pocket fours, facing a limp from Ladva, who called with ace-jack. The board ran out with an ace — ending the gruelling tournament just as the clock struck 4 a.m.