6.50pm: Team PokerStars Pro Nacho Barbero wins the High Roller and £556,000
It had been coming for some time. Jani Sointula had dropped to 600,000 when he shoved over Barbero’s 80,000 button raise. The Argentine snap-called.

Barbero: A♦ J♣
Sointula: K♥ 4♣

The board gave instant service to Barbero with an ace on the flop but also gave Sointula a straight draw with A♠ 3♣ 2♥ but running queens on the turn and river blanked out for the Finn. To be fair, he doesn’t leave empty handed, far from it, and his bank account will swell some £335,000 for his second place finish.

Barbero had certainly been one of the most active and aggressive players at the final table, sometimes getting in behind and sometimes with the nuts. He’s been great fun to watch and is a deserving winner of the EPT High Roller event having beaten an extremely tough final table.

Check the payouts here . — RD

6.41pm: Nacho turning up the heat
Jana Sointula is down to about 800,000 (20 big blinds) and Nacho Barbero is giving him no breathing room at all. He’s check raised Sointula once and also moved all-in over a Sointula button min-raise. Both players have dropped their open raise size to the minimum raise since this level started. — NW

6.35pm: Barbero ahead at the break
Nacho Barbero is control of this heads up with 2,850,000 to Jani Sointula’s 1,000,000. There have been some big swings and with the blinds cranking up to 20,000-40,000 there’s certainly going to be big action this level. Sointula has just 25 big blinds. — RD

PokerStars Blog reporting team at EPT London (in order of media passes worn): Nick Wright (1) and Rick Dacey (0 – lost it days ago). Photos by Mickey May and Neil Stoddart.