Ottomar Ladva Wins €25,000 High Roller at EPT Barcelona

As the principle match room turned more and more empty heading into the wee hours of the morning, Ottomar Ladva seemed as recent and sharp as he did when he first entered €25,000 No-Restrict Maintain’em II. It was readily obvious that Ladva set his sights on profitable the ultimate high-roller of the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona.

Following a marathon 13-hour day, the targeted 27-year-old did simply that after besting a 60-entry area and defeating Artsiom Lasouski heads-up to assert his third EPT title. Ladva additionally 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 area, which included the likes of poker crushers equivalent to Patrik Antonius, Nick Petrangelo, Mike Watson, and Sam Greenwood.

Earlier than turning to poker, Ladva achieved chess grandmaster standing and gained 4 Estonian Chess Championship titles. His newest victory pushed his live-tournament earnings past €1,000,000, a milestone that appears solely non permanent because the younger Estonian continues his speedy ascent up the poker ranks.

€25,000 NLHE II Ultimate Desk Outcomes

Motion of the Day

Following a brief delay, simply 5 gamers had taken their seats to begin the day in what seemed like could be a modest high-roller occasion. Nevertheless, the large cash gamers did not take lengthy to search out their strategy to the match room. By the point late registration closed, 60 entrants had joined the fray, surpassing the 46 entrants that the primary version of this match attracted only one week in the past.

Leonard Maue, who chopped the €50k Excessive Curler Second Probability earlier within the sequence, hopped out to an early chip lead after doubling up by means of Jules Dickerson after which catching a giant bluff from Jean-Noel Thorel. Nevertheless, Maue couldn’t maintain onto that momentum and busted shy of the cash after getting brief and calling all in preflop with a suited connector towards Greenwood’s ace-jack and failing to enhance.

A number of gamers took benefit of the choice to max late-reg on the finish of Stage 10, together with a mixture of newcomers equivalent to Ren Lin, Antonius, and Erik Seidel along with some reentrants. Whereas most of those gamers met an early demise, Greenwood managed to construct a large stack in brief order — first by doubling up by means of Derk van Luijk with jacks after which by selecting off a large semi-bluff from Vito Jhonny Recchimurzo Diaz some time later.

The eliminations got here at a livid tempo, with greater than half of the remaining area getting despatched out between the time late registration ended and dinner break started. Amongst those that fell wanting the cash have been Lin, Jesse Lonis, Sean Winter, Brock Wilson, and Jules Dickerson.

Mathew Frankland obtained an enormous enhance to his stack after scoring a double knockout on the final hand earlier than dinner break. Vladimir Korzinin shoved blind and Mikael Thuritz additionally went all in with pocket kings. Frankland known as, having each gamers lined, with ace-queen, and flopped an ace to emerge as one of many chip leaders.

Ultimate Desk Motion

A ultimate desk of 9 convened following a couple of extra eliminations, together with Petrangelo, who bubbled the ultimate desk after shoving preflop with ace-trey and getting known as by Ladva with a dominating ace.

The cash bubble burst dramatically after Antonius discovered himself on the unsuitable finish of a brutal cooler. Antonius and James Collopy (who each had huge stacks) bought right into a pre-flop elevating conflict that ended with Antonius all in with pocket kings towards Collopy’s pocket aces. The Finnish poker legend failed to enhance and remained elegant, wishing everybody good luck regardless of his elimination.

Stoyan Madanzhiev, Michel Molenaar, and Biao Ding have been the brief stacks coming into the ultimate desk and have been single-handedly eradicated by Lasouski in eighth, seventh, and sixth place respectively after shoving preflop and ending up second-best.

Greenwood rode his wholesome stack properly into the ultimate desk however finally ran out of steam and was pressured to give up the remainder of his chips to Frankland after shoving with a dominated ace towards Frankland.

With ever-escalating blinds, many fingers turned largely preflop affairs, leading to shoves. Frankland was no exception and ended up in fourth place after shoving with king-five towards Collopy’s ace-eight in a blind versus blind confrontation.

Collopy was poised to run away with the chip lead at that time and even had Ladva one card away from elimination. Nevertheless, Ladva as an alternative managed to double up by means of Collopy after which take the remainder of his chips after coming from behind with six-five suited towards Collopy’s ace-ten to arrange the heads-up play.

Lasouski entered heads-up at a major chip drawback however managed to double up by means of Ladva to drag practically even a number of fingers into their heads-up battle. It turned out to be Ladva’s day, although, as just some fingers after that, Lasouski shoved with pocket fours, dealing with a limp from Ladva, who known as with ace-jack. The board ran out with an ace — ending the gruelling match simply because the clock struck 4 a.m.