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Stephen Song Wins EPT Barcelona Main Event for €1.3M

Stephen Song EPT Barcelona

Despite being all-in and at-risk a total of five times on the final day of the EPT Barcelona Main Event, the card gods were the most friendly to Stephen Song. At the end of it all, in poetic fashion, Song cracked Andrew Hulme’s pocket eights with ace-seven to win the 20th Anniversary Golden Shard trophy and an incredible €1,290,386.

Song is a true poker grinder with a WSOP bracelet, six WSOP Circuit rings, and nearly $8,000,000 in live tournament earnings across an insane 255 live tournament scores. His 13th career documented live win is the most special, giving him a new career-high score nearly two months after his 57th-placed finish in the WSOP Main Event.

“You just keep showing up and eventually you’re just going to win, right? Just mathematically, it has to happen,” Song said in an interview with PokerNews.

“I will say that my mom said she was praying for me very hard during this tournament. I’ve been sun-running the whole seven days, so I’m definitely thankful for that.”

Despite Song’s incredible list of accomplishments, which includes winning the 2022 Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year award, the New York City-born superstar claims that this title is his most important victory yet.

“This, for sure, is number one. WPT Prime (Las Vegas, 2022) was awesome, too. My family was there, and my mom was there, so that was incredible. But this is an EPT Main Event, there’s just not that many of them. And to now be able to say I’m an EPT winner is just unreal.

The 2024 version of the EPT Barcelona Main Event was one of the biggest European Poker Tour Main Events of all-time, with 1,975 total entries creating a massive prize pool of €9,578,750. 287 players cashed the event, earning at least €8,700, with an original top prize of €1,512,000. Song and Hulme agreed to a heads-up deal.

2024 EPT Barcelona Main Event Final Table Results

Place Player Country Prize
1st Stephen Song USA €1,290,386
2nd Andrew Hulme UK €1,165,614
3rd Marius-Catalin Pertea Romania €674,150
4th Rania Nasreddine USA €518,600
5th David Coleman USA €398,950
6th Boris Kuzmanovic Croatia €306,900
7th Alexandre Fournier Canada €236,100
8th Jianwei Lin China €181,600
9th Fabiano Kovalski Brazil €139,750

The EPT Barcelona Main Event was highlighted by being an event full of international flavor. There were seven different nations represented at the final table and an incredible 82 countries in the event. Despite not being in the top-five countries in terms of total entries, three Americans graced the final table, all finishing in the top five.

Most notably, Rania Nasreddine became just the ninth player in EPT history to make back-to-back final tables, finishing third at EPT Monte Carlo for €442,900, her previous high score. Her 4th-placed finish vaulted Nasreddine to just off the top-1,500 on the all-time money list. Should our projections be correct, she’ll also move into third place in the 2024 GPI Ladies Player of the Year race.

Legendary player David Coleman finished just behind Nasreddine in 5th place for €398,950, which should see him move up to number one in the overall GPI Player of the Year hunt, moving ahead of Jesse Lonis and Adrian Mateos. Lonis briefly held the top spot after his 8th-placed finish in the €10,300 EPT Barcelona High Roller, where he took home €104,800.

Next up on the European Poker Tour circuit is EPT Cyprus from October 9th to the 20th at the beautiful Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa.

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GGPoker acquires WSOP brand in $500M landmark deal, WSOP to remain in Las Vegas until 2044

GGPoker acquires WSOP brand in $500M landmark deal, WSOP to remain in Las Vegas until 2044

On August 1st, 2024, Caesars Entertainment announced the sale of the World Series of Poker brand to iGaming investment group NSUS Group Inc. for $500 million via press release. 

NSUS Group Inc., the operators of GGPoker and ClubGG, received $250 million in cash and includes a $250 million promissory note that’s due in 2029.

This will be exactly five years after the closing of the deal, which should take place before the end of the year.

Caesars Entertainment sell WSOP brand to NSUS Group Inc.
Source: https://twitter.com/CaesarsEnt/status/1819101984709898531

Caesars Entertainment had owned the brand since 2004, when MTR Gaming Group purchased the World Series of Poker tournament from Binion’s and the rights to the Horseshoe name in Nevada for just $44.3 million. That’s an 11.3x increase in value over the last two decades.

“We’ve enjoyed a longstanding and successful partnership with GGPoker that has helped spur the growth of the WSOP brand,” said Eric Hession, President of Caesars Digital. 

“This transaction is an exciting step for Caesars as a company and the WSOP brand as it continues to evolve. We can’t wait to see what NSUS has in store for growing the WSOP’s legacy in poker, and we look forward to continuing to deliver an unmatched and familiar experience to poker players going forward.”

“After collaborating with Caesars Entertainment for years, NSUS Group, the operators of GGPoker, is thrilled to announce their new role in leading the World Series of Poker, the world’s most renowned poker brand,” said Michael Kim, Chief Executive Officer of NSUS Group Inc. 

“We will leverage GGPoker’s cutting-edge technology and industry expertise to create an exciting future for WSOP, ensuring players have an increasingly improved, safe, and seamless poker experience. Under the new leadership, NSUS intends to expand WSOP worldwide, positioning it at the forefront of poker’s growth.”

As a major part of the deal, Caesars will continue to host the World Series of Poker’s flagship summer series for the next 20 years. 

Caesars will keep displaying WSOP branding in their poker rooms and Caesars properties will be the first choice to host upcoming WSOP Circuit events. 

For the moment, WSOP will continue to operate their WSOP Online poker site for a limited period of time, with a number of exceptions in place. WSOP Online currently operates their real money poker app in Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

In addition to cash games and regular tournaments, WSOP Online has hosted a large number of WSOP online bracelet and circuit ring events.

So too has GGPoker, the world’s biggest online poker site, who have worked extremely closely with the World Series of Poker brand over the last handful of years.

During COVID, GGPoker hosted an incredible 54 bracelet events on their poker platform.

In addition to hosting a large number of official WSOP events on their website, their ambassadors, such as Daniel Negreanu, have heavily promoted WSOP’s international series. 

This includes the inaugural WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas, which will return for a second edition in December and include a $25,000 Super Main Event with a world-record $50 million guarantee.

From an American perspective, one thing clearly sticks out: GGPoker is not currently available in the United States. GGPoker did obtain a supplier license in Pennsylvania in 2021 but has yet to appear in the market.

While poker players certainly have approved of the GGPoker takeover of the World Series of Poker, it may cause quite a stir if players aren’t able to play summer online bracelet events while they simultaneously play in Las Vegas.

A week after the announcement of the acquisition, GGPoker revealed the addition of 33 bracelet events that will take place on the GGPoker platform from August 18th all the way until September 30th. 

Opening flights have already started and can be found in the GGPoker lobby.

  • Event 1 (Aug 18):  $500 Annual WSOP Kickoff Bounty NLHE (final stage)
  • Event 2 (Aug 19):  $300 Gladiators of Poker NLHE (Day 2) ($2.5M GTD)
  • Event 3 (Aug 20):  $2,100 NLHE Bounty Championship
  • Event 4 (Aug 22):  $840 PLO Bounty
  • Event 5 (Aug 24):  $500 Ladies NLHE Championship
  • Event 6 (Aug 25):  $1,500 Monster Stack NLHE
  • Event 7 (Aug 26):  $215 Mystery Millions NLHE (Day 2) ($10M GTD, $1M top bounty)
  • Event 8 (Aug 27):  $2,500 NLHE Turbo Championship
  • Event 9 (Aug 29):  $320 NLHE Bounty
  • Event 10 (Aug 31):  $1K 5-Card PLO
  • Event 11 (Sept 1):  $100 NLHE Flip & Go (Go stage) ($1M GTD)
  • Event 12 (Sept 2):  $500 NLHE Mini Main Event (Day 2) ($2.5M GTD)
  • Event 13 (Sept 3):  $5K NLHE 6-Handed Championship
  • Event 14 (Sept 5):  $500 Big NLHE Bounty
  • Event 15 (Sept 7):  $800 NLHE Ultra Deepstack
  • Event 16 (Sept 8):  $215 Beat the Pros NLHE Bounty
  • Event 17 (Sept 9):  $1,500 Millionaire Maker NLHE (final stage) ($5M GTD, $1M first place)
  • Event 18 (Sept 10):  $5K Short Deck 3-Stack Championship
  • Event 19 (Sept 12):  $777 Lucky Sevens NLHE 7-Handed Bounty
  • Event 20 (Sept 14):  $1K Double Chance 2-Stack NHLE
  • Event 21 (Sept 15):  $1,500 GGMasters NLHE High Roller Freezeout
  • Event 22 (Sept 16):  $400 Colossus NLHE (Day 2) ($4M GTD)
  • Event 23 (Sept 16):  $400 Plossus PLO Bounty (final stage) ($1M GTD)
  • Event 24 (Sept 17):  $10K PLO Championship
  • Event 25 (Sept 19):  $525 Superstack NLHE Turbo Bounty
  • Event 26 (Sept 21):  $10K NLHE Heads-Up Championship
  • Event 27 (Sept 22):  $1,050 PLO Mystery Bounty
  • Event 28 (Sept 23):  $5K WSOP Online NLHE Main Event (Day 2) ($25M GTD)
  • Event 29 (Sept 24):  $25K GGMillion$ NLHE Super High Roller Championship
  • Event 30 (Sept 26):  $2,100 NLHE 6-Handed Bounty
  • Event 31 (Sept 28):  $5K PLO High Roller
  • Event 32 (Sept 29):  $1,500 Closer NLHE Bounty Turbo (final stage)
  • Event 33 (Sept 30):  $10,300 GGMillion$ NLHE High Roller (Day 2) ($10M GTD)