EPT Barcelona Super High Roller Sees Kayhan Mokri Score Second Title

Take down one high roller on the European Poker Tour and poker fans will take notice. Win two and maybe players will look up your details. Kayhan Mokri’s latest victory in Barcelona was the second in a week and in taking down the $110,595-entry Super High Roller, he won the biggest prize of his career, banking $1.5 million in the Catalan city.

Bumper Prizepool Pays Six

With 41 entries, 28 unique players battled down to just six money places. As seven remained at the start of Day 2, a very big money bubble was afoot, with $307,900 on the line. French professional Thomas Santerne was the man who left without profit as his ace-king saw him risk his stack. Up against the American Sean Winter’s pocket nines, a board of Q-T-T-8-5 never did anything more than flirt with Santerne’s fading hopes and he was the last player to leave with no return on his investment.

With everyone who remained now inside the money places, play loosened up a little. The 2024 Poker Hall of Fame inductee Patrik Antonius grew shorter in stack quite against his stature in the game. Shoving with king-jack of hearts, the Finnish poker hero was called by Jesse Lonis with pocket sevens.

The flop of Q-6-6- helped Lonis rather than Antonius, and while a nine on the turn gave the at-risk professional ten outs to save his tournament, none of them arrived as an eight dropped on the river and Lonis sent him home with $307,900, improving his own chances in the process.

Suvarna and Lonis Leave the Party

Santosh Suvarna has had easily the best year of his life, and his latest cash in fifth place brought him above $14 million in live tournament results, which has him 83^rd on the current The Hendon Mob All-Time Money List. Three-betting all-in pre-flop with ace-queen, Suvarna couldn’t hit against Kayhan Mokri’s pocket nines as a board of 6-4-3-J-2 gave the Norwegian a priceless scalp and sent Suvarna to the rail with $395,940.

In fourth place, Jesse Lonis was busted for $505,850 after moving all-in for just over 11 big blinds with ace-deuce and being called by Seth Davies with king-queen. A flop of K-J-J put Davies in the lead and both the seven on the turn and five on the river did nothing to help the lost Lonis, who missed out on the top three places in unfortunate circumstances.

Down to the final three, Seth Davies had the chip lead, and a huge one. Sat on over 6 million chips of the 10 million in play, however, it all went wrong for the American. Firstly, due to Mokri’s hand strength when shoving with pocket eights. Davies had ace-deuce no miracle could come to send him heads-up, instead handing the lead to the eventual winner at a pivotal time.

Winter Comes for All

Davies might have dropped his lead, but he made the heads-up battle at least. That honor was beyond Sean Winter, as the PokerGO regular moved all-in bluffing with jack-eight on a board showing K-9-2-Q. Called by Davies correctly with just deuce-four, the latter’s smart call was rewarded by a blank river and Winter was frozen out of the action, collecting $681,950 for his run to the podium places.

Heads-up began with the chips virtually level, but Mokri’s marginal lead counted for the title when one hand with almost all the chips in the middle decided it. On a board displaying J-9-8-5, Mokri raised all-in with pocket fives for bottom set on the turn. Davies had the call for all of his chips with jack-nine and he called, meaning he’d need to hit a jack or nine to make a full house on the river but an eight landed on 5^th street and Davies could only finish as runner-up for $989,830.

For the Norwegian player Mokri, it was a case of two major titles in a week in Barcelona, as he took home $1,517,850 and the latest of his ‘Red Spade’ trophies.

If you want to watch all the action, you can tune into PokerStars’ live coverage of the final table right here.