Jose ‘Nacho’ Barbero wins the PokerStars European Poker Tour London High Roller

Team PokerStars Pro Jose 'Nacho' Barbero has won the PokerStars European Poker Tour London High Roller event to cap off an incredible run of results over the past two years. The Argentinian Team PokerStars Pro , who scored back-to-back LAPT Main Event victories in Uruguay and Peru earlier in 2010, stunned the field again in London, enjoying the biggest tournament win of his career by taking first place for £556,000 in the High Roller event.

With a £20,000 buy-in the field of 77 players proved to be a tough proposition and Barbero had to overcome fellow Team PokerStars Pros on his way to glory. The main thorn in his side at the final table was Vanessa Selbst, who held a commanding chip lead with just eight remaining. However, after battling his way towards the top of the chip leaderboard, Barbero won a vital coin-flip against Selbst to eliminate her in fourth, and went on to beat Finnish pro     Jani Sointula heads-up.

After winning the event, an ecstatic Barbero, said: “I’m really happy to have won such a big tournament in Europe. Finishing first in back-to-back LAPT events was fantastic and very tough, but I was desperate to continue that form elsewhere. Now I can say I’ve beaten a world-class field in Europe – it’s a dream come true.”

Team PokerStars Pro, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, praised Barbero, saying: “It has been an incredible year for Nacho. He has proved at two LAPT events, in major online tournaments at PokerStars, and now at EPT London against an elite field, that he has the game to compete with the best in the world. I believe he is set to be one of the game’s biggest stars.”

Nacho’s win on European soil isn’t his first of the year. In May he triumphed at the France Poker Series, winning €40,123. Barbero has also proved his poker skills on the virtual felt in 2010, winning a $2,100 Fixed Limit Hold’em Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) event for $62,780 in May, before more recently finishing third in the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP)    8-Game High-Roller event for $172,900.

Jose Barbero has quickly ascended to the very top of the poker world in 2010 with combined winnings in excess of $1.875 million. Nacho’s latest win now gives him a shot of also winning the Card Player 2010 Player of the Year award – a remarkable achievement for the Argentinian Team PokerStars Pro.

Sarne Lightman, Latin America Marketing Director, said: “PokerStars is extremely proud of Nacho's incredible success so far this year. At PokerStars we've always been committed to investing in burgeoning poker markets and nurturing new generations of poker players. It’s fitting that with Latin America becoming one of the world's fastest growing poker markets, the top Team Pro from that region explodes on to the global poker scene as one of the most successful tournament players of 2010.”.

About PokerStars:

PokerStars is the world’s largest regulated gaming operator and poker site, with more than 40 million members. It’s the first choice of the world’s top players, with more daily tournaments than anywhere else, and with the best security online. More hands have been dealt on PokerStars than any other site; that’s over 50 billion hands dealt to date and more than 300 million tournaments played.

PokerStars operates worldwide under license from the Isle of Man Government. Recent additions to the PokerStars family include PokerStars.fr, which operates in France under the French government license, as well as PokerStars.it, which operates in Italy under the Italian government license, and PokerStars.ee, which operates in Estonia under the Estonian government license.

PokerStars regularly sets the bar high, staging some of the biggest online and live poker tournaments in the world, including: the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP).

PokerStars is the official sponsor of some of the biggest live poker tournaments in the world, including: the European Poker Tour (EPT), the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) and the UK and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT).

PokerStars is also home to an elite team of sponsored players known as Team PokerStars Pro – a group of established and up-and-coming players that travel the world competing in international tournaments. For a list of Team PokerStars Pros visit: Team PokerStars.

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