The EPT Barcelona Main Event has turned itself into an outright American invasion, as three of the final six players in contention for the €1.5 million first-place prize also look to break a long dry spell on the opposite side of the Atlantic.
It’s been almost 10 years since a player from the United States has won an EPT title on European soil, dating back to Stephen Graner‘s EPT Prague win in December 2014. The three American in question each carry significant weight into their respective title pushes as well.
Stephen Song, who enters Sunday as the chip leader, has a victory in the 2022 WPT Prime Championship and a WSOP bracelet to his name with over $6.5 million in lifetime live tournament earnings. David Coleman is fresh off a win in one of the $25,000 WPT Alpha8 Trifecta events at Wynn Las Vegas over the summer, and his high roller tournament experience will likely suit him well with the big dollar amounts on the line.
And then there’s Rania Nasreddine.
The Tulsa, Oklahoma native made waves this spring during her run at EPT Monte Carlo, where she ultimately finished in third place. Nasreddine has locked up a rare feat by making a second consecutive EPT Main Event final table, and she’ll get her second shot at a major title on Sunday.
The three Europeans still in the hunt are no pushovers by any means. Marius Pertea of Romania sits just behind Song in the chip counts, and after some close calls in the past he’s finally made his first EPT Main Event final table.
Andrew Hulme of England and Boris Kuzmanovic of Croatia are the two shortest stacks, but well within range. Each set career high water marks at the World Series of Poker in las Vegas over the last two years, but stand to add to those significant sums regardless of where they finish.
After a long Day 6 at Casino Barcelona, the 16 players were finally whittled down to the targeted final six with just 30 minutes left on the clock. Play will resume at 1 p.m. in Barcelona, with live streaming coverage on PokerStars’ broadcast channels starting on a one-hour delay at 2 p.m. local time (8 a.m. ET).
Here’s what the final six will be playing for:
- €1,512,000 ($1,677,205)
- €944,000 ($1,047,144)
- €674,150 ($747,809)
- €518,600 ($575,263)
- €398,950 ($442,540)
- €306,900 ($340,433)
Ahead of Sunday’s restart, this is what you need to know about the six players at the final table of the 2024 EPT Barcelona Main Event.
Stats and tournament earnings courtesy of The Hendon Mob. Additional information supplemented by PokerStars Blog.
Stephen Song – 15,150,000 (61 big blinds)
29 Years Old
Greenwich, Connecticut, United States
Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $6,542,031
Biggest Lifetime Cash: $712,650, 1st, 2022 WPT Prime Championship
Other Prominent Scores: $476,990, 2nd, 2022 WSOP $5,000 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em; $341,854, 1st, 2019 WSOP $1,000 No Limit Hold’em
Stephen Song has accomplished a great deal in his poker career, and his performance thus far in the EPT Barcelona Main Event has been nothing short of masterful. He’s ended each day of play among the chip leaders, and has managed to wield that stack in a way that’s kept him out of major danger, save for one memorable moment where Song found a two-outer on the river to score a major knockout on the featured streaming table.
While winning this tournament wouldn’t technically qualify him for poker’s Triple Crown, when combined with his WPT Prime Championship win and WSOP bracelet, such a victory would put Song in some rarified air. He’d also more than double his career-best live cash.
End of Day 1 chips – 230,500 (19/625)
End of Day 2 chips – 459,000 (17/290)
End of Day 3 chips – 1,382,000 (4/112)
End of Day 4 chips – 4,130,000 (1/40)
End of Day 5 chips – 6,725,000 (2/16)
Marius Pertea – 14,575,000 (58 big blinds)
44 Years Old
Buzau, Romania
Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $374,438
Biggest Lifetime Cash: $107,754, 1st, 2017 Unibet Open Bucharest €1,000 Main Event
Other Prominent Scores: $68,153, 4th, 2018 EPT Monte Carlo €2,200 No Limit Hold’em; $48,223, 11th, 2017 EPT Monte Carlo Main Event; $32,124, 8th, 2018 WPT European Championship (Berlin)
Before this tournament, Marius Pertea’s poker career could be defined by a series of close calls in his biggest spots. He finished 11th on PokerStars’ biggest live stage in Monte Carlo in 2017, and then one year later in Berlin, Pertea narrowly missed out on the final table of the WPT European Championship with an eighth-place result.
It seemed as though Pertea could wind up with a similarly painful outcome late on Day 6 as well, when he and Fabiano Kovalski squared off in a massive pot that all but boiled down to a coinflip. Pertea held 
against Kovalski’s pocket eights on a 
flop. And rather than hit the flush, Pertea spiked the 
on the turn for a massive double-up.
After playing on an almost directly opposite trajectory to Song as one of the short stacks at the end of almost every day of play in this tournament, Pertea suddenly finds himself directly in the mix and just off the chip lead.
End of Day 1 chips – 73,000 (336/625)
End of Day 2 chips – 105,000 (206/290)
End of Day 3 chips – 354,000 (67/112)
End of Day 4 chips – 700,000 (33/40)
End of Day 5 chips – 2,535,000 (12/16)
David Coleman – 10,425,000 (42 big blinds)
31 Years Old
Livingston, New Jersey, United States
Resides: Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $6,648,959
Biggest Lifetime Cash: $730,300, 1st, 2024 $25,000 WPT Alpha8 Trifecta #3
Other Prominent Scores: $642,900, 2nd, 2024 Triton High Roller Series Jeju $52,000 Turbo Bounty Quattro; $455,000, 2nd, 2021 PokerGO Cup $50,000 No Limit Hold’em; $364,000, 2nd 2021 Super High Roller Bowl Europe $50,000 No Limit Hold’em
David Coleman has played for serious sums of money on poker’s high roller tournament circuit over the last four years, and after racking up some tough runner-up finishes in several big spots Coleman broke through in a big way over the summer in Las Vegas. In the third and final edition of the WPT Alpha8 Trifecta series, Coleman broke through with a $730,300 victory at Wynn Las Vegas.
Running through a field of 1,975 entries is a different task entirely than taking on 100 of the world’s best, but no less impressive a feat to reach the final six among such a contingent. And like Song, Coleman stands a chance to more than double his career-best cash with a win on Sunday in Barcelona. He spent several stretches on Day 6 of the tournament among some of the shorter stacks, but thrust himself into contention when his pocket kings held to eliminate Alexandre Fournier in seventh place to end the night Saturday.
End of Day 1 chips – 233,000 (18/625)
End of Day 2 chips – 185,000 (136/290)
End of Day 3 chips – 615,000 (36/112)
End of Day 4 chips – 3,900,000 (2/40)
End of Day 5 chips – 3,570,000 (7/16)
Rania Nasreddine – 8,300,000 (33 big blinds)
44 Years Old
Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $1,179,439
Biggest Lifetime Cash: $473,639, 3rd, 2024 EPT Monte Carlo Main Event
Other Prominent Scores: $87,750, 8th, 2011 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown $25,000 High Roller; $60,380, 1st, 2022 WSOP Circuit Tulsa $400 No Limit Hold’em.
It’s been a breakout 2024 in every sense of the word for Rania Nasreddine, who took the poker world by storm in late April and early May with her run to the final table of the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event. She made a tremendous impression as she entertained viewers worldwide during that stretch, and it’s only been magnified as Nasreddine claimed a slice of poker history by making it back-to-back final tables with her performance in Barcelona.
Nasreddine began Day 6 as the chip leader, but slid back to the pack on the way down to a single table. She did a lot of the dirty work in getting the field down to six players; first, when her pocket jacks held up to knock Kovalski out in ninth.
Then came a hand that will likely be played on PokerStars highlight reels for years to come against Jianwei Lin.
Wait for it…
“I have never seen that, in more than a decade on the EPT,” says @Stapes.
Watch the final table at https://t.co/SB357usSaR or https://t.co/ZarB0RN21O#EPT20 ♠️ pic.twitter.com/BxB1rmfWeb
— PokerStars LIVE (@PokerStarsLIVE) September 7, 2024
A fifth-place finish would essentially match what Nasreddine did in Monte Carlo, but with a second bite at the apple, Nasreddine is poised for another shot at an EPT title.
End of Day 1 chips – 239,000 (14/625)
End of Day 2 chips – 609,000 (7/290)
End of Day 3 chips – 1,330,000 (5/112)
End of Day 4 chips – 2,005,000 (10/40)
End of Day 5 chips – 7,200,000 (1/16)
Andrew Hulme – 5,525,000 (22 big blinds)
36 Years Old
Nottingham, United Kingdom
Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $2,281,721
Biggest Lifetime Cash: $345,000, 18th, 2023 WSOP Main Event
Other Prominent Scores: $167,864, 4th, 2022 EPT Prague Eureka High Roller; $159,319, 1st, 2018 GUKPT London Main Event
Andrew Hulme has made a considerable career for himself in poker, accumulating almost $2.3 million in lifetime live tournament earnings. He made a run in poker’s largest showcase, reaching the final two tables of the 2023 WSOP Main Event before bowing out.
But there’s another reason to believe that the bright lights of an EPT final table with over $1.6 million awaiting the champion won’t phase Hulme in the least. Hulme is perhaps best known in England for his runs on the long-running game show Countdown. After appearing for the first time at just 11 years old, Hulme won a Junior Championship at age 13 and then returned seven years later to run off eight consecutive victories and the honor of becoming an “octochamp.”
Hulme has already matched his career-best cash by locking up a top-six finish in Barcelona, and any pay jumps would only add to that achievement.
End of Day 1 chips – 135,500 (113/625)
End of Day 2 chips – 437,000 (22/290)
End of Day 3 chips – 724,000 (25/112)
End of Day 4 chips – 780,000 (31/40)
End of Day 5 chips – 1,670,000 (13/16)
Boris Kuzmanovic – 5,275,000 (21 big blinds)
37 Years Old
Zagreb, Croatia
Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $547,735
Biggest Lifetime Cash: $133,479, 8th, 2024 WSOP $3,000 Mid-Stakes Championship
Other Prominent Scores: $62,084, 2nd, Eureka Poker Tour Dubrovnik Main Event; $47,674, 19th, 2021 WSOP Europe Main Event
Like Hulme, Boris Kuzmanovic has had a few brushes with major results over the course of his career, accumulating over $500K in live tournament earnings along the way. The 37-year-old computer consultant made his first major final table over the summer at the WSOP, but his run thus far in Barcelona dwarfs everything else he’s done in his poker career thus far.
Kuzmanovic sat in third in chips when players went to the dinner break on Sunday, and despite largely staying out of the way as he slowly fell down the pecking order Kuzmanovic is likely happy to have guaranteed himself more than double what he was guaranteed by simply surviving from ninth players down to six – and he’s still well within range of making a run at the title.
End of Day 1 chips – 121,000 (153/625)
End of Day 2 chips – 210,000 (111/290)
End of Day 3 chips – 270,000 (79/112)
End of Day 4 chips – 1,230,000 (20/40)
End of Day 5 chips – 6,565,000 (3/16)