Gergo Nagy Turns Four Big Blinds into �268,600 at EPT Barcelona

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Sep 06, 2024 4 min read

After four hours of explosive action, the �10,200 Pot-Limit Omaha wrapped up at the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) at Casino Barcelona. Gergo Nagy started the day with the second-shortest stack out of fifteen players. At the start of the final table, he was easily the shortest stack with just four big blinds.

By the end of the day, he held every chip in the tournament, defeating Patrick Kennedy after a back-and-forth heads-up duel to take home his first PokerStars spade and the top prize of �268,600.

�10,200 Pot-Limit Omaha Final Table Results

Final Day Action

Only 15 players from a field of 106 entrants managed to find a bag on Day 1 and make it to the second and final day, where all players were guaranteed a min-cash worth �17,800. Theo Jorgensen was the first player to fall after getting it in with a wrap against Triple Crown winner Mike Watson's two pair and failing to improve. Jorgensen was quickly followed out the door by fellow short stacks Alexander Petersen, Yuriy Boyko and Tor Ivarsson in a rapid flurry of early eliminations.

Omaha crusher Ka Kwan Lau came into the day with the second-largest stack, while eventual runner-up Kennedy had the chip lead coming into the day. The two players had opposite trajectories from the start; Kennedy seemingly could not lose a pot, while Lau found no momentum, sliding further and further down the chip counts as the day progressed. Lau finally bowed out in eleventh place in a four-bet pot against Kennedy after which Kennedy had more than double the chips of any opponent with just ten players remaining. Samuel Albeck then fell in tenth place soon after Lau's elimination to set up the nine-handed final table.

There was a massive disparity in chip stacks at the start of the final table. Kennedy had more than one-third of the total chips in play with nine players remaining, while five players had 15 big blinds or less. Kennedy seemed poised to score a double elimination in one of the first hands after the final table began after flopping a flush draw and turning a straight draw to go with it against two short-stacked opponents. A miracle nine on the river gave Youness Barakat the same straight as Kennedy to keep himself in contention. In contrast, Christopher Philippou became the first final table casualty.

Nagy, who had been quietly surviving on his short stack for the entire day up to this point, began his comeback with eight players remaining. First, he doubled up through Jorryt van Hoof in a preflop confrontation that saw his pocket queens hold against Van Hoof's pocket jacks. After that, Van Hoof was left with crumbs and bowed out in eighth soon after. A few hands later, he took a sizable chunk out of Mark Buckley's stack without having to go to showdown. Not long after, he cracked Kennedy's aces with a set of nines to double up again. Roughly one hour after Nagy entered the final table as the bottom stack with four big blinds, he was in pole position with the chip lead.

Watson started the day with the third-largest stack and was third in chips going into the final table. Shortly after Buckley was eliminated in seventh place, Watson's momentum came to a screeching halt after a brutal runout against Nagy that saw the Canadian poker legend make his exit in sixth. Just two hands after Watson's elimination, perpetual final table short stacks Slade Fisher and Barakat were eliminated in fifth and fourth places, respectively.

Online poker wizard Henri Puustinen, also known by his screen name "buttonclickr," was among the shorter stacks throughout the day but did an excellent job navigating the field, doubling up several times en route to making it to the final three. Puustinen's momentum finally ran out when he fell in third place in a hand against Kennedy, who flopped the nut flush, leaving Puustinen drawing dead on the turn.

Following Puustinen's elimination, Kennedy entered heads-up play with roughly a 2:1 chip lead over Nagy. Things were going Kennedy's way at first, and after a few hands, he quickly found himself with a 3:1 chip lead over his opponent. The ever-resilient Nagy was not going down without a fight, and he managed to take down a few hands without showdown to start closing the gap. The turning point saw Kennedy flop a set of fives only for Nagy to turn a straight and get paid with a big river bet. Nagy took a slight lead over Kennedy after that hand and Kennedy never recovered, losing several pots that did not go to showdown before Nagy won a preflop race to win the final pot of the night, his first PokerStars spade, and the top prize of �268,600.

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