It’s that time again, when EPT geeks get out the calculators, or more likely the backs of envelopes, and work out how likely a first time second winner is in San Remo. The chances this time round may produce very small numbers though with both candidates, Arnaud Mattern and Joao Barbosa, struggling at the back end of the leader board.
Arnaud Mattern is the best placed of the two. He starts today with 103,700, a shade above the 95,000 average. The Frenchman burst onto the scene after winning the EPT Prague in season four, the first time the tour had rolled into the Czech Republic. In a packed auditorium he saw off the likes of Gino Alacqua, Kristian Kjondal and Markus Golser on his way to a first prize of €708,400.
Arnaud Mattern
Mattern’s EPT success wasn’t confined to his Czech check. He has since cashed four times including a second final table, a thriller in Warsaw this year where, up against Dario Minieri, Ludovic Lacay and Andrea Benelli he finished fifth. That gives us a convenient link to the winner back in Poland – Joao Barbosa.
If he wins the EPT San Remo it will be after recovering from having a stack of just 31,400 chips on day three. But Barbosa cashing might be story enough. So far this season the Portuguese Player of the Year has six cashes, amounting to more than €427,000 in prize money. That’s already a record. Make it seven and the Portuguese title might not be the only award his earns this year.
