Three barrels of pure live tournament value including a round-up of the action towards the end of the European Poker Tour in Barcelona, news of a fourth Finnish victory at a Unibet Open, and Julian Sacks wins the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event at Foxwoods.

Professional poker players do such a great job at hiding emotion at the table that we often have to wait for the inexperienced amateur to win the lot before we see any signs of a tear, and that’s what happened in the European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event in Barcelona.

Two years ago, a 19-year old Polish kid, Sebastian Malec, was studying at the University of Warwick, England when he decided to take a train to London to experience the EPT and meet the players who had become his heroes through TV and live updates. Fast forward to today and he has beaten them all in the largest EPT Main Event field in history.

Malec topped a field of 1,785 entrants to walk away with the €1,122,800 first prize. After his victory, the Pole couldn’t stem the flow of tears, and who can blame him, after he qualified for the event for €27 playing online at PokerStars.