João Barbosa Triumphs in EPT Warsaw November 24, 2008

At the end of the exciting PokerStars European Poker Tour Warsaw Main Event, it was João Barbosa from Portugal who was holding up the EPT trophy in triumphant delight.

The trophy for the European Poker Tour is characteristically shaped like a spade, and João, the first Portuguese winner of the EPT, took home the trophy as well as prize money of €367,140, the rough equivalent in USD being around $460,000. A fantastic way to celebrate a birthday for any poker player!

The win wasn’t a cakewalk, though. Barbosa had to prevail over 216 rivals and to battle it out against a particularly competitive final table. Besides the EPT champion, there were poker greats such as Arnaud Mattern, the winner of the Prague EPT and Dario Minieri the Team PokerStars Pro at the final table. Michael Muheim, Ludovic Lacay, Andrea Benelli, Dario Minieri, Atanas Gueorguiev, Sergey Shcherbatskiy and Nico Behling. Dario Minieri took the third place after being ousted by Barbosa, with sevens against nines, and it was Nico Behling who played head to head with Barbosa in the final stages of the event.

Eventually, João Barbosa won the PokerStars European Poker Tour Warsaw Main Event when Nico Behling’s Jack-7 was defeated by the new EPT champion's Ace-10. Behling walked away with €205,270.

The final results of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Warsaw Main Event were as follows:

João Barbosa in first place with €367,140
Nico Behling in second place with €205,270
Dario Minieri in third place with €123,162
Atanas Gueorguiev in fourth place with €87,973
Arnaud Mattern in fifth place with €72,724
Sergey Shcherbatskiy in sixth place with €57,476
Andrea Benelli in seventh place with €45,745
Ludovic Lacay in eighth place with €32,843
Michael Muheim in ninth place with €21,114

Now, poker aficionados can look forward to the next EPT location – Prague in the Czech Republic.