Ricardo De Andrade Wins EPT Barcelona €3,000 Mystery Bounty

Ricardo De Andrade from Portugal won the EPT Barcelona €3,000 Mystery Bounty event, earning €374,064 and €21,000 in bounties. He defeated 1,338 rivals in the tournament. De Andrade's opponent in the heads-up battle was Armin Rezaei from Austria, who had a live tournament record of more than $1,000,000 in cashes, including a career best performance in a $10K High Roller at the Aria this July.

De Andrade was taking part in his first European Poker Tour event and had scored his first live cash a fortnight ago in a €1,100 Estrellas Poker Tour tournament at the Casino Barcelona. Rezaei had been the big stack for almost all of the final table action until that point. However, De Andrade quickly doubled and followed up with winning a few decent size pots.

De Andrade found the courage to call off a big bluff from Razaei earning himself an EPT title and a nice prize to boot. Speaking after his victory, De Andrade said, “Yesterday, around the bubble, I was running really, really good. I was chip leading on the bubble. I couldn’t lose a pot, it was insane. Today things started quiet, nothing too important. I lost a huge pot at the final table against the guy who went heads-up with me. Heads-up started with an almost ten-to-one disadvantage, but I regained my focus. I got lucky also, but first I doubled up and next I won two pots, three pots. When that happened, I felt like I’m going to take this down. The momentum was there and I was confident. I mostly play online. Live, this is my second event. My first one was in March at Estrellas Madrid. This is my first time coming to an EPT and yeah, huge score. My hands are shaking man, I don’t even know how to express it. Just to play an EPT is a dream come true, but to win an event is crazy. It’s crazy. The money is important obviously, but I think the most important thing is the trophy and winning an EPT event.”