A massive hand for Ludovic Lacay gives the Frenchman the probable chip lead. He flopped a flush with 10d-9d — in fact, it was an open-ended straight flush draw with the board showing Jd-8d-3d. He managed to get Pavel Blatny, holding A-J, to part with all his sizeable stack, and the flush was good. Very good. It was the biggest pot of the tournament so far, and Lacay, who final tabled in Warsaw last month, is looking very strong again here.

Not so Juan Manuel Pastor, who has just bust in bizarre circumstances. He moved all in and thought he heard a call from Raul Mestre. Mestre hadn’t actually called, but was in fact asking for a count. But before this was cleared up, Pastor had shown his hand. It was A-K. The tournament director Thomas Kremser ruled that Pastor’s action was accidental, so he wouldn’t be penalised, and Mestre still had the option to either call or fold.

Mestre calculated and decided to call, even though he only had 5-2. But when the two came on the flop, Pastor was out.

Dutch PokerStars qualifier Joris Jaspers was in “take no prisoners” mood in a hand against a player whose name was on his shirt but who was gone too quickly for anyone to read it. On a flop of 9h-5s-Qh Jaspers bet 1,325 which his opponent re-raised to 3,650. After a short pause Jaspers neatly moved the remainder of his chips into the middle, 5,000 more which was ultimately called, Jaspers showing Jh-Td against Jc-9c. The Tc and 6d on turn and river put new life into the Dutchman’s stack, now up to 15,000.

EPT Warsaw winner Joao Barbosa is still on the way to potential runner-runner titles. He just shoved all-in on a board of 2c-4c-Td behind a raise of 3,000 from a player opposite who then tried to interrogate Barbosa.

“You can’t possibly be on a flush draw… can you beat ace-ten?”

Like a machine Barbosa sat quietly waiting for a raise, call or a fold. None came.

“Okay,” said his opponent folding, “nice.”

Barbosa up to 20,000

Talking of which Barbosa was one of the many players who talked to the video blog team earlier today…

Watch EPT Prague S5: Interview with Joao Barbosa Day 1b on PokerStars.tv.

“Stephen Chidwick raises to 400… everyone folds… Stevie wins the pot.”

That’s what the commentary might sound like, were someone calling the action over at Table 3, where Stephen “stevie444″ Chidwick is currently playing the role of table captain, vacuuming up his opponents’ chips at an alarming rate. Judging by his growing tower of yellow 1,000 chips and the empty chair in Seat 3, Chidwick has already claimed one scalp today and is wasting no time in growing his stack even further.

Chidwick is somewhat of a legend among PokerStars players. This year, the online phenom won over 100 seats to the WSOP Main Event, primarily via the Steps tournaments. As he is three years away from being of age to play in the U.S., Chidwick turned them all in for cash. For those of you who aren’t quick at math, that’s over a million dollars in earnings. Not bad for a kid barely out of high school.

When we last saw Chidwick it was in a far more frigid climate, at the EPT Warsaw. Surprisingly, he did not play the tournament, preferring to stick to the cash games and keep an eye on his friends (horses?) who were in the event. Since turning 18, Chidwick has started following the live tournament circuit, and is already building a solid record, placing 15th at the EPT Barcelona in September and winning a $1,000 side event at the 2008 PokerStars Carribean Adventure last January. Having recently made the move to the U.S., Chidwick is currently rooming with poker couple Jon Van Fleet and Maridu Mayrinck in Austin.

“Stephen Chidwick raises to 400… everyone folds. Stevie wins the pot.”

That time, he turned over 3-9 offsuit with a small smile as he raked in even more chips. Opponents, beware.

Yesterday Joao Barbosa was 25-years-old and one of the hottest rising stars on the European Poker Tour. Today Joao Barbosa is 26-years-old and €367,141 richer. On the day he celebrated his birthday, the kid from Porto, Portugal, also underlined his serious talent. Barbosa’s EPT record now reads: one title and two other cashes from four events played. Here is our Best Newcomer-elect.

Joao Barbosa, Portugal’s first EPT champion

Barbosa out-gunned one of the highest-quality final tables in recent memory, featuring the reigning EPT Prague champion Arnaud Mattern and the Team PokerStars Pro Dario Minieri. Minieri and Barbosa had previous. They tangled in one of the most spectacular pots of the tournament late on day two, when Minieri called a massive bluff from Barbosa with second pair, which was good against the Portuguese’s seven-high. But Barbosa earned his revenge today, dispatching Minieri in third place with pocket nines to the Italian’s sevens.

Three-handed action (from l-r): Joao Barbosa, Dario Minieri, Nico Behling

That left Barbosa to do battle with Nico Behling, another young player rapidly making a name for himself on the poker circuit. The German made the final table of the Aussie Millions earlier this year and is now the nearly man of EPT Warsaw. Behling scaled the heights of a monstrous chip lead mid-way through the final table, ousting Ludovic Lacay, whose aces lost to a set of eights in the German’s hands. And although he took a huge hit later on, his set of sixes no good against Minieri’s straight, he was even in chips when they went down to two.

But Barbosa had the run of it heads up, picking off the bluffs and rarely getting caught with his own. After doubling up once, and a couple of dramatic split pots, Behling was all in with J-7, but Barbosa’s A-10 was not to be outdrawn. Behling has €205,270 with which to soothe his wounds. Barbosa has more than 360,000 reasons not to forget his 26th birthday.

How they lined up

How we got down to three was a familiar tale of brutal aggression sprinkled with suck outs. The short-stacked Michael Muheim was first out, running into Sergey Shcherbatskiy’s cheekily-played aces.

Michael Muheim

Muheim’s A-9 never caught up and the PokerStars qualifier took €21,114 for ninth. Lacay’s aces weren’t quite so lucky, running into a set of eights as described earlier. And then Andrea Benelli’s day was ended by his friend and countryman Minieri. That was an A-Qh v J-J affair, the flush turning for Minieri.

Andrea Benelli

Shcherbatskiy was next to go, forced back to the Urals by Barbosa, whose pocket queens were better than Shcherbatskiy’s A-5. Still, the €57,475 prize for sixth represented a massive spin up on his $7.50 buy-in to a step one tournament on PokerStars.

After that it all got a little grim, for Mattern and another PokerStars qualifier, Atanas Gueorguiev, in particular. “Three-outered and then two-outered,” muttered Mattern as he went to the cage for his fifth-placed money, referring to two outdraws — A-K beaten by A-8 and pocket 10s undone by eights. It was arguably even worse for Gueorguiev, who got it in good on a king-high flop with ace-king. But Barbosa, way behind with K-Q hit the magic queen on the river. He made €87,973 for fourth, another PokerStars qualifier in the money.

And that, really, was that. We wondered if might be the first two-time champion. We wondered whether Dario Minieri might take his first EPT crown. We wondered if a PokerStars qualifier might win another major tournament having qualified online for peanuts. In the event, we got none of those things. But we did get another terrific final table and another hugely talented winner. Congratulations Mr Barbosa, and happy birthday.

Watch EPT Warsaw 08. The Winner of the Final Table on PokerStars.tv

Take a blow-by-blow look back at the final table with any of the following links.

Final table introductions
Level 18 updates
Level 19 updates
Level 20 updates
Level 21 updates
Level 22 updates
Level 23 updates

Not enough unlikely clumps of consonants? Try the Hungarian coverage. Or even the Polish. How about nice little graphics of cards? You can find that on the German final table wrap. And if small circles above letters is more your bag, the Swedish blog has it covered.

Moving images are available, as always, on the peerless PokerStars.tv. All the peerless photography on the PokerStars blog comes from Neil Stoddart. And the next stop on this peerless poker tour is in Prague next month. Please join us.

Thank you and goodnight from Warsaw.

Play on the final is underway. We’re in level 24 with blinds at 12,000-24,000 (3,000 ante).

This post contains the latest action from the level, and will also include approximate chip counts throughout play. The official counts, taken at the end of each level, are on the chip count page.

11.20pm: Joao Barbosa wins the EPT Warsaw and €367,141. Details to follow…

11.20pm: Nico Behling of Germany, eliminated in second place for €205,270
The last hand came from out of nowhere, a 60,000 bet from Behling pre-flop, re-raised to 200,000 by Barbosa before Behling said “all-in”. That made Barbosa bounce back in his chair, composing himself enough to call, showing Ah-Th to Behling’s Js-7s. The flop hit both hands, 7c-As-3h. The turn 6h gave Barbosa more outs and the 6d made that irrelevant. A new EPT Warsaw champion is crowned, his name is Joao Barbosa.

Nico Behling

11.10pm: This is it!
Some people aren’t surprised. An all-in, called, a defining hand that would swing the momentum one way or end it the other. As-Jh for Behling, Ac-9h for Barbosa, behind but safe on a split pot board of Qc-3h-4s-Ah-3s.

11.02pm: Pre-flop action
A couple of big bets have been enough to see off the other. Then a big pot developed pre-flop. A Behling bet of 60,000 from the button, re-raised by Barbosa to 170,000. Behling thinks but mucks.

10.50pm: Stalemate
A pot to sum up the current stalemate. Checking all the way to the river on a board of 7c-Td-3h-7h-7d. Behling bet 60,000 and Barbosa called. Each showed an ace and a kicker lower than a ten for a split pot.

10.35pm: All-in called
Ten hands, mostly folds pre-flop, all-ins not called. Then an all-in called, all the chips in the middle with Barbosa showing pocket sixes to Behling’s Q-9 which on the flop finds another nine to see him double up.

10.15pm: Chip counts
Joao Barbosa — 1,794,000
Nico Behling — 376,000

***

One of the many video blogs available on PokerStars.tv includes this one with Nico Behling earlier in the tournament…

Watch EPT Warsaw 08: Interview with Nico Behling Final Table on PokerStars.tv