Poker Moments: Sebastian Malec’s Miracle at EPT Barcelona
January 03, 2024 Paul
Seaton
In the summer of 2024, one of the most bizarre and exciting final hands of any
tournament brought a controversial PokerStars EPT Barcelona Main Event to a close.
Sebastian Malec defeated Uri Reichenstein to claim the title he’d imagine winning his
whole youth. The ultimate fan of the European Poker Tour won the most coveted title of
his dreams.
EPT Barcelona, however, was no ordinary EPT. PokerStars had halted play
before the first card was dealt to break the news to fans and players alike that the
EPT was being closed as a brand, and that the new PokerStars Championship (PSC) was the
way forward.
James Hartigan, presenter, commentator, and senior editorial manager of
the EPT and many other PokerStars shows, remembers the moment well.
"I don’t think
there’s any harm in anyone saying, 'OK we made a mistake, we never should have ended
the EPT, and we’re bringing that back.'"
“It was difficult,” says Hartigan, “I make no
secret of the fact that I never wanted to say goodbye to the EPT. I found it a curious
decision. One of the reasons why I drank the Kool-Aid and bought into it was that I
thought the EPT wasn’t ending; I thought it was expanding and transitioning into the
PSC which would be taking the EPT global. Bizarrely, when we got to the end of 2024, we
were saying it was the end of the EPT the beginning of something new. That confused me
because that’s not what I thought was going to happen. It’s obvious that it didn’t
work, and I don’t think there’s any harm in anyone saying, ‘OK we made a mistake, we
never should have ended the EPT, and we’re bringing that back.’”
Looking back, everyone
has 20/20 vision in retrospect, but at the time, Hartigan thinks that the ‘final days’
element helped created one of the most unique Main Event winners the EPT has ever
seen.
“I think it played into Sebastian Malec’s emotions at the time. He’d heard along
with everyone else that there were going to be three more - Barcelona, Malta, and
Prague - and then it was going to be something else. To him, he was going to be one of
the last EPT champions.”
Malec was young, just about to turn 21 when EPT Barcelona Main
Event rolled around. Malec was almost unheard of, yet strangely had been in the
winner's photo for an EPT previously.
“In a remarkable piece of foreshadowing, at the
EPT Dublin final table earlier that year, which Dzmitry Urbanovich won, on his rail,
there were a number of Polish players... among which was Sebastian Malec. In the
winner’s presentation when Urbanovich lifts the trophy, Malec is there as part of that
contingent cheering. Fast forward six months, and he’s lifting that trophy, and the
polish poker community is celebrating his victory.”
No-one has ever won an EPT like
Sebastian Malec did. From bathroom habits to a pantomime every time he was in a hand,
Malec was like an excited child on Christmas Eve. He was going to get the present of a
lifetime.
“He was such a one-off. We identified him when we were down to four or five
tables at the end of Day 4. He won a huge pot on the very last hand of the day. We
didn’t see it on the stream, but the crew out in the field noticed that after winning
that hand, he got really emotional and broke down in tears. The fact that he made it to
the penultimate day, the final 24 or 16 players and obviously had a huge stack, he was
someone who was very invested in it.”
No-one had any idea how invested. But Hartigan
and the team interviewed every player on the eve of the final table, and the picture
became clear. Malec was a fan. A superfan.
“We only made TV shows of the final tables
of the EPT that year, so we interviewed everyone who was at the final table. We heard
Malec’s story and found out about his background as a chess prodigy [who] discovered
poker.”
"It was a combination of nerves and excitement that made him behave the way he
did."
It turned out that Malec was a student who had visited the EPT tournament while
studying in London.
“He was this ultimate poker fanboy. He’d come to have his picture
taken with people like Jason Mercier and to see Liv Boeree play. To be in the position
where he could qualify for the EPT, play in the EPT and then go deep and potentially
win what at that point was the biggest EPT ever held, it clearly meant so much to him.
It was a combination of nerves and excitement that made him behave the way he
did.”
Malec’s final hand was the poker moment of his life, and possibly that of his
opponent, Uri Recihenstein too, just for different reasons.
“The reason I love the hand
is because it has a bit of everything. You’ve obviously got this ridiculous cooler, and
you’d had this back-and-forth heads-up battle where both players had enjoyed a dominant
chip lead. Sebastian needed to go to the bathroom several times, and they were almost
dead even in chips. I sat there thinking ‘This will go on until five in the morning!’
and then: Cooler Alert!”
Malec turns a flush, with Reichenstein making the nut straight
with the same card. Malec goes all-in on the paired river, and Reichenstein then
proceeds to deliberate the call which would end the tournament in his opponent’s favor,
while Malec prances, dances and prowls around the table. Malec even left the table to
take a selfie with the crowd on the rail, to raucous laughter.
(hand starts at
10:41:00)
“Malec walks away from the table. Part of you loves it, part of you knows
that the tournament staff probably shouldn’t let him leave the table and sit in the
crowd and letting someone take a sip of his drink. But it was so fun to watch. More
than that, Sebastian Malec goes through every human emotion from the moment Uri
Reichenstein throws in that single chip to call. The sheer excitement as he jumps up
and realizes that he’s got to get back to the table, flips over his cards, he’s jumping
for joy, then the emotion hits him, and he realizes ‘Oh my God, I’ve won!’ and he just
bursts into tears.
"He’s in the corner crying his eyes out, then the celebrations start
again, his friends and the other Polish players are around him and lifting him up and
he realizes ‘I’m the winner. The last hand is hilarious, fun, and ridiculous. And what
follows afterward is probably the best winning moment we’ve ever had in any live event
ever.”
Better players have won EPT Main Events. Bigger names have never even got close
to achieving what Malec did. It was clear that his EPT win was the biggest moment of
the young man’s life.
"To see the TV set, all those tables, the pros, and then play on
the tour and win it, is just an incredible journey which encompasses everything about
why we do what we do."
“I think he’s very lucky by the way, with everything he was
saying and doing, he was exuding so much strength to the point where Reichenstein said
‘Everything you’re doing right now tells me that you’ve got it, that you’re really
strong.’ It’s absolutely telegraphing his hand, but somehow he still gets a call.”
We
can all identify with the pain Reichenstein is in. He’s turned an improbable straight
heads-up and knows that it’s a huge hand and he should be winning. But his gut is
screaming at him to fold. He has to know if his gut is right or wrong.
“It’s something
we can all relate to. Granted not for the same stakes with an EPT on the line, but
we’ve all been 100% they’ve got it, but we can’t help ourselves but put the chips out
there. We need to see it, to be proved right, but the cost [to Reichenstein] was an EPT
title and a huge difference in prize money.”
Sebastian Malec will always be remembered,
and for many reasons, so will the 2024 EPT Barcelona festival. Hartigan believes that
Malec’s miraculous moment in the sun is something that brings together the aspiration
and organization of the EPT.
“He’s taken that journey from poker fanboy to EPT
champion. For someone who’s grown up watching the shows on TV, followed the live stream
and came to an event to see what it’s like, to actually walk into that room, it’s
amazing. To see the TV set, all those tables, the pros, and then play on the tour and
win it, is just an incredible journey which encompasses everything about why we do what
we do.”
