It’s been quite a year for Argentina’s #1 poker player Jose Ignacio “Nacho” Barbero and that continued last night with a $1,025,000 takedown at Triton Montenegro.
All sorts of silliness led to the 43-year-old pro from Buenos Aires finally losing his gig as ACR ambassador last month, but he has bookended those shenanigans with more than $3million in live earnings this year.
Fresh off a 3rd-place finish for $341,000 in event #2 $25K NLH 8-Handed, won by Alex Foxen, the happy-go-lucky Argentine was deep in the mix again in event 3, the $30K NLH 8Handed.
The 147 entries (from 95 unique players) had put together a prizepool of some $4,410,000 at the Maestral Casino & Resort, and we are nowhere near the big $100k and $200k buy-in events yet.
Belcher on the Bubble
As always, the bubble was the first port of call, and this time it was Matthew Belcher who would miss out on a payday, running pocket 4s into $10million golden girl, Kristen Bicknell.
In the money but falling before the final table were the likes of:
- Mike Watson (21st for $52,000)
- Phil Ivey (14th for $68,000), and
- Artur Martirosian (10th for $86,000)
$100k for the ‘newbie’
That still left room for some more absolute crushers, Mateos, Chidwick, Kristen Foxen, and Linus Loeliger among them. One name that wasn’t well-known was Abdullah Alajmi.
The Kuwaiti has played some smaller events in Cyprus but this was his first big buy-in cash, 9th spot for $102,000 after being trapped by Barbero.
France’s Thomas Santerne followed him to the rail in 8th spot and then Barak Wisbrod exited, the Israeli who has had much success online in the weekly GGMillion$ SHR. This is how he lost his final 15 bigs…
Wisbrod: A♣ 10♣
Barbero: A♥ K♦
Flop: J♣ 6♦ A♠
Turn: 3♣
River: A♦
Barbero showed he could also defeat big slick, producing pocket sixes to take out Schwect and his A♣ K♣ on the very next hand, and that left the final five with $300k sewn up.
Foxen’s ‘One Chip Behind’ Dilemma
Kristen Foxen had just become only the second female to break through $10million in lifetime earnings but her exit was a curious affair, and one that has been much discussed in recent times.
Opening all but one small blind of her stack, she received a call from Chidwick and then Barbero decided to turn the screw…
Should Foxen call and take her chances? Or fold and hope that Chidwick would call and bust? She chose the latter, but it potentially cost her hugely as the Englishman eventually mucked as well. Foxen was soon all-in and out in 5th.
Love’s Labours Lost
Linus Loeliger, the once-upon-a-time anonymous online crusher ‘LLinusLLove’, decided A♥ 9♣ was good enough to get his last 9 bigs in. Mateos had barely one chip more but his pocket 6s held up and we were down to three.
The leading English pro had doubled twice to survive but third time was unlucky, Barbero gain the executioner, and we had our Spanish-speaking Barbero/Mateos finale.
With a 15:2 chip deficit, it was always going to be an uphill battle for Mateos. All-in pre, the poker gods had their say as well…
Mateos: J♦ J♣
Barbero: Q♥ 10♠
Flop: Q♦ 9♣ 2♠
Turn: 3♠
River: 8♥
“I play a lot, I go to every stop, I play everything and sometimes it works out. I ran super good in this tournament, I’m not going to lie.” -Nacho Barbero
Final results
| 1 | Nacho Barbero | Argentina | $1,025,000 |
| 2 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | $694,000 |
| 3 | Stephen Chidwick | UK | $463,000 |
| 4 | Linus Loeliger | Switzerland | $379,000 |
| 5 | Kristen Foxen | USA | $304,000 |
| 6 | Tobias Schwect | Germany | $235,000 |
| 7 | Barak Wisbrod | Israel | $175,000 |
| 8 | Thomas Santerne | France | $128,000 |
| 9 | Abdullah Alajmi | Kuwait | $102,000 |
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