Online German Pro Andre Lettau Wins Historic EPT 100th Main Event at Barcelona for €794,058

The 2014 European Poker Tour Barcelona €5,300 No-limit Hold’em, 100^th Main event has just concluded and a jubilant Andre Lettau (cover image) of Germany emerged victorious, taking home the title, €794,058 and a luxury SLYDE watch.

Lettau is the second Schemion horse to win an EPT, after being anointed by the German Champion, Ole Schemion. Four years ago, Schemion railed another compatriot, Martin Schleich at Casino Barcelona and this time, he handed his hat to Lettau, who proudly wore it all the way to the podium.

Lettau was visiting EPT for the first time and is a highly reputed online player and mentor. The Vienna based online pro took down $65,062 at the SCOOP $215 6-max turbo, super knockout event this year.

The Main event had 1,496 players paying up €5,300 to enter, blowing up the prize pool to a mega €7,480,000.

After 7 days of whittling, the final day went through a rigorous 15-hours, with the climax of heads up play lasting all of 6 hours, Lettau proved his mettle to handle the trek and the boisterous crowds at the rails.

The final three-handed play between Lettau, Samuel Phillips and Hossein Ensan resolved to a deal, with Phillips taking €1,021,275 and Ensan €652,667 and Lettau getting €704,058, leaving another €90,000 and the title to be won.

Both Lettau and Ensan began the day on a high note, with the former making strong moves and the latter starting as chip leader.

One hour into the final table, the first player was busted and the misfortune belonged to Bulgarian Slaven Popov, who took his earnings of €121,300 and retired with good grace.

Ji Zhang was next to go, but not before asking for a count and taking two whole minutes, before calling; a move that irked both, commentators and viewers on EPT Live.

Phillips was on a high roll, as he kept up a dominating play over the table, for most of the time. He became the reason for Kirl Radzivonau’s exit at 6^th place and Lettau eliminated Andrey Shatilov next.

Andrew Dato was out after that at 4^th place, after his 1s2d ran up against Ensan’s .

This left a three-handed table, which hotly debated for 30 minutes, until a deal was agreed.

Lettau first eliminated Ensan, with his . The board showed up and Ensan with his got another on the river, marking the end of his journey.

By this time, Phillips had run out of steam, after losing most of his stack and was already at a disadvantage of a 5-1 deficit, but he still rallied around to reduce the gap to 2-1 and at one point was poised to win, with just a single card missing.

It took 141 hands to reach the final hand and at hand #273, the winner was decided. Phillips with shoved all in, but the board sent forth and Lettau with his made history.

After first consoling his defeated opponent, the young winner said, “I’m excited to have won. I want to say thanks to my rail.”

Lettau the let on that the money was more important to him than the title and added “It’s OK to be an EPT champion.”

“I played a very tough opponent heads-up, it was up down, up down,” Lettau concluded. “Can I go home now?”

EPT 11 Barcelona Main Event Final Table Results

Image Courtesy: PokerStars blog