David Dongwoo Ko has taken down the €5,200 8-Game event at EPT Barcelona after seeing off a top-tier field to win €37,550.
The Canadian has a live tournament record only stretching back to December 2022 and says he is new to mixed games.
If the high-stakes mixed games scene is all new to him then he must have been disappointed to see only 18 players turn up.
The recent addition tournament was cancelled initially but later got going with only three players. Soon after we did at least get to see three tables in action.
And three good tables it was, at that. Talent such as Dzmitry Urbanovich and Benjamin Pollak was present and there was also a new face putting in a great performance.
Jiaming Zhao made the trip from China only knowing how to NL hold’em. He got some translated material online for the other seven games and away he went, eventually finishing in eighth place after leading the field at one stage.
Action Recap
Urbanovich and Pollak were hot tips for this event but never managed to get anything going, departing the hall early doors.
Ivo Bartoletti and Andres Korn both started the final table stage perilously short-stacked and quickly were heading to the rail in seventh and sixth.
And it was Finland’s Jyri Merivirta who was suffering come money bubble time. After holding a more than workable stack, he paid off Benny Glaser twice to move the Brit above him in chips. Minutes later he was packing up his gear.
While still in the 2-7 triple draw round, Troyanovskiy paid off his last big bet and followed the Finn out.
High-stakes crusher Mike Watson was the man looking most likely to win the event. Since the final table kicked off he metronomically increased his stack as the hands ticked by.
Glaser wasn’t to last much longer, but it was Ko who was the beneficiary, negating Watson’s lead to begin heads-up with almost even stacks.
The fans did get to see a decent duel for more than an hour, with both players taking turns at holding the lead.
But then the script flipped with Ko winning two large pots in quick succession to leave his fellow Canadian with only three big bets left.
It was all over in a hand of 2-7 triple draw with Watson chancing his nine-high only for Ko to flip over an eight-high.
Ko was ecstatic after sealing the EPT win and spoke to awaiting reporters.
“It feels amazing to win, but I’m still sick of busting the Main Event.”
“I’ve only been playing mixed games for a couple of months, I’m getting sick of no-limit hold’em. Since there is no mixed in Canada, I try to play as much as possible elsewhere.”
EPT Barcelona €5,200 8-Game Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (EUR) |
| 1 | David Dongwoo Ko | Canada | €37,550 |
| 2 | Mike Watson | Canada | €23,550 |
| 3 | Benny Glaser | United Kingdom | €15,700 |
| 4 | Vladimir Troyanovskiy | Russia | €10,500 |
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