2016 Estrellas Barcelona Main Event


FRENCH VICTORY AT ESTRELLAS MAIN POKER EVENT
 
Mohamed Samri and Dutch pro Teunis Kooij strike a deal in the heads up.
 
French player Mohamed Samri went on to claim victory and the Euro 353,200 first prize in the Euro 1,100 buy-in Estrellas Barcelona Main Event this week after agreeing a heads up chop with Dutch pro Teunis Kooij.
 
Kooij actually took home more than the winner at Euro 372,060, thanks to terms of the deal between the two.
 
The event attracted a record field of 3,447 creating a Euro 3.34 million prize pool that enabled 695 players to cash.
 
After several days the action distilled to a final table led by the tough and competitive UK ace Chris Moorman, who along with Kooij was responsible for eliminating all of the final table players save Samri to enter three-handed play.
 
At that point it looked very much like a Kooij –  Moorman finale as Samri lagged whilst the two exchanged the chip lead several times in some fierce action.
 
However, following a big double up through Moorman, Samri overtook both opponents to seize the lead. That severely reduced Moormans chances of winning, and he soon fell to Kooij, exiting at third for Euro 241,300.
 
Kooij, who by now held a 24 million chip lead, and Samri paused to make a deal as Moorman headed for the rail, finally agreeing to leave Euro 12,000 on the table for the winner, and the heads up action began.
 
Almost immediately Samri struck another significant double up, going on to quickly defeat Kooij in an all-in for the biggest win of his career.
 
The rest of the final table scored as follows:
 
Nicholas Newport Ireland Euro 202,420
Marius Enebakk Norway Euro 163,800
Jean-Marc Bellini Switzerland Euro 125,450
Jerome Brion France Euro 87,350
Lars Farsted Norway Euro 62,300