Schleich wins EPT Barcelona, Katchalov third

German Martin Schleich EPT Barcelona €5,300 main event at Casino Barcelona. In defeating Spain's Dragan Kostic heads-up, Schleich collected his first EPT title and €850,000. Dragan Kostic took home €532,000 for finishing second in the 811 player main event that broke records in Spain for a live tournament by creating a tournament every held in Spain with 811 players and the largest prizepool of €4,055,000.

For most of the final table, it was PokerStars pro Eugene Katchalov's pursuit of his first EPT title and inclusion in the rare Triple Crown club that captured everyone's attention. Only four poker players have ever won a WSOP, WPT and EPT title in their career. Katchalov was unable to join Jake Cody, Gavin Griffin, Roland De Wolfe and Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier.

For many hours on Thursday and early Friday morning it seemed as if Katchalov would complete his journey from the final table short stack to win the event. He doubled up a couple times early, then won a pivotal hand against original final table chip leader Tomeu Gomila, hitting a three-outer on the river to double up again and gain chips to do battle. And battle he did for hours, holding the chip lead at various times.

Three handed, Katchalov lost momentum finally and bust when he shoved all in pre-flop with 7's, only to be called by Schleich's 9's which held up.

2011 EPT Barcelona main event final table results:

1. Martin Schleich