EPT Barcelona: Glenne the champion

Norwegian would, could...and did
Norwegian Bjorn-Erik Glenne has won the EPT here in Barcelona, beating Phil Ivey heads up to pocket a cool 691,000 euros.

He crushed the final table, and even a poker superstar of Ivey's status could find no answer to his aggression and hand selection.

Ivey faced Glenne heads up well down on chips. The Norwegian - something of a chess expert, by all accounts - had a sea of brown 5,000 chips in front of him amounting to nearly 5 million.

Ivey, meanwhile had a tiny stack by comparison of just 350,000.

The early duel was straight forward - raise, fold; fold; call, check etc - but the killer hand was always just around the corner.

The blinds were 20,000/40,000 with a 4,000 ante.

Glenne, first to act, called, and Ivy as he had begun to do more often, moved all in for his remaining goodies. Glenne called.

Ivey had an ace with a five, but Glenne had the 10-10 - a heads-up monster. The flop sealed it, with a third 10 falling for Glenne, 10-J-2.

The turn was an 8 and then Ivey was dead.

The rail erupted. A strong Norwegian contingent is here - as they are at all the EPT tourneys. Ivey - who collected 371,000 euros - deserves much credit. This was his first EPT event, and he wasted no time in showing us all just why he is one of the best players in the world.

Two phenomenal performances.