01 Jul 09
WPT Barcelona Results June 09
It's a WPT Championship on European ground and still a US-American wins: after a deal with Pier Sjoegren, Mark Randal Flowers won the heads-up of the Spanish Championship.
The poor attendance at this championship has been on the news quite frequently. Nonetheless, the final table was well-staffed: with the Danes Martin Wendt and Dan Bisch Pedersen two great players were in on the game at the final table. Despite the low attendance some PokerStrategists were at the WPT event. Among others 
Peter87, 
MrEvans and
AceOnTheRiver could be found at the tables in Barcelona.
Josef Samanek started as chip leader on the last day, but he was, however, unable to keep the lead and left the table fifth for €50,400. Martin Wendt had to go a bit earlier and was ranked sixth. Yet, €42,000 were sure to make his way to the rails a lot easier.
Dan Bitsch Pedersen missed by a very small margin the heads-up and therefore the chance to win his first WPT title, when he ranked third. Mark Randal Flowers and Pier Sjoegren were the two players who then went for the win; they agreed on splitting the prize money after a chip count, however.
So the heads-up was "just" for winning the WPT Bracelet and the attendance at the WPT World Championship in the Bellagio, which is on in April 2010. The ticket for the yearly WPT finale is worth $25,000 and incentive enough for both competitors to play the best possible poker.
In the end, Mark Randal Flowers (picture on the left) won and managed to win his first ever WPT title.
Below are the results from the Final Table:
| WPT Spanish Championship Results |
||
| Place |
Name | Prize Money |
| 1st |
Mark Randal Flowers | €277,000* |
| 2nd |
Pier Sjoegren | €143,000* |
| 3rd |
Dan Bitsch Pedersen | €84,000 |
| 4th |
Roland Van Morckhoven | €62,000 |
| 5th |
Josef Samanek | €50,400 |
| 6th |
Martin Wendt | €42,000 |
| 7th |
Cayetano Garcia | €33,600 |
| 8th |
Xavier Detournel | €25,200 |
| 9th |
David Johansson | €16,900 |
* official prize money
The WPT is now taking on the US. From 13rd until 19th July the Bellagio Cup in Las Vegas takes place. The first satellites in Vegas are already on, therefore, more players will make their way to the Mecca of Poker than to Barcelona these days.
By the way, the current title holder of this event is Michael Watson, who was able to win against David Benyamine and take $1,673,000 home with him.
It will be interesting to see how many players are able to afford the buy-in of $15,000 for the event at the Bellagio.
Whether or not the attendance at the next WPT Championship in Europe will be better than in Barcelona, remains to be seen. From 31st August to 4th September, the WPT will stop in Bratislava. The buy-in will be €4,400 then.
