Last updated on February 11th, 2025 at 07:28 pm
At 29 years old, Stephen Song must wait eleven more years to qualify for the Poker Hall of Fame. That’s more than enough time to build his resume. At present, he has already had big wins in massive buy-in events. The latest one is the European Poker Tour Barcelona main event.
After an excellent poker career, Song won the €5,000 European Poker Tour Main Event this past weekend, bringing in a record-breaking €1,290,386 ($1.4 million). 1,469 players participated in the PokerStars-sponsored tournament, with 504 re-buys contributing to the €9,578,750 prize pool. Of that number, 109 qualified for the game using PokerStars.
The event celebrated the 20th annual EPT Barcelona, which began when Song was a small child in Connecticut. There were activities for poker players in Barcelona. Bookie pay per head reviews and news sites stated he had become a multi-millionaire in poker, having won approximately $8 million in tournaments. According to the Hendon Mob, he has won over a dozen times. His accomplishments include six WSOP rings, one WSOP bracelet, and his biggest payday, a 2022 World Poker Tour Prime championship.
European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event Winner
So far this year, Song has only won one EPT tournament. By December 2023, he had won his sixth WSOP Circuit. Despite this, he placed in the top nine of ten events in 2024, including a $10,100 event in July of the ARIA High Roller series of the PokerGo Tour. He finished second in the event.
Even though many online qualifiers were mere enthusiasts or novices, among the final six players were winners boasting career tournament earnings of over one million dollars.
According to pay per head software experts, runner-up Andrew Hulme won $2.2 million coming into the event. In addition, his highest lifetime payout was $345,000. It came from his 18th-place performance in the 2023 WSOP Main Event. However, he significantly outdid that amount in Barcelona.
Final Table Action
Romanian Marius Pertea was hoping for a reversal of fortunes at his third final table in EPT events, but he finished in third place, which is still enough for a career-best payout. The resident of Tulsa, Rania Nasreddine, earned her Circuit ring at that venue last summer. She had just won $473,639 after placing third in the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event, her most payout to date. The value of a fourth-place showing in Barcelona was over half a million.
David Coleman is now one of the top high-roller tournament players in the world, joining Song in this elite group. A veteran of the Las Vegas scene, the 31-year-old pro won all four of his PGT titles this year. Included in his accomplishments include placing second in the 2024 Triton High Roller Series Jeju $52,000 Turbo Bounty Quattro, earning $642,900; taking second place in the 2021 $50,000 PokerGO Cup, earning $455,000; and finishing third in the $50,000 Super High Roller Bowl Europe, earning $364,000. Boris Kuzmanovic of Croatia joined the final table as a sixth-place finisher after nearly tripling his best cash.
Final Table Results
- Stephen Song – €1,290,386
- Andrew Hulme – €1,165,614
- Marius Pertea – €674,150
- Rania Nasreddine – €518,600
- David Coleman – €398,950
- Boris Kuzmanovic – €306,900
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