Spain is a country in deep ruins. A very large part of the population is unemployed and especially amongst the younger people the tendency is bad. Due to those circumstances it probably doesn’t come as a surprise that poker is very popular in the country as you can make a decent living out of it quite easily.

The poker craze in Spain means that they have their very own tournament series travelling from city to city, where locals and professionals battle against each other for some serious money. This time the Estrellas Poker Tour, or ESPT, had arrived in Madrid, where a total of 578 players paid the €1,100 buy-in to compete.

With the field consistent mainly of Spanish players, some foreigners were in it and it was also a foreigner who won the tournament, as the Dane Nicki Dalgaard took home the first prize of €106,400 in front of Andrés Viñas from Spain. The Dane was looking solid throughout the entire final-table, which was dominated by six players from Spain, one from Poland and Dalgaard from Denmark.

When the two players reached the heads-up duel, Dalgaard had a 4:1 chip lead over Viñas, a chip lead he continued to increase until his opponent was down to 1,200,000 in chips, around half of what he started with. The final hand Dalgaard 3-bets with  to 700,000 and when Viñas pushes all-in for another 500,000 with  , Dalgaard calls.

The dealer deals the flop showing , Turn was  but on the river Dalgaard hits  and has a straight against Viñas’ pair of fours.

Final table payouts:

1. Nicki Dalgaard – €106,400
2. Andrés Viñas – €66,300
3. Álvaro Mencía – €47,400
4. Manuel Saavedra – €36,700
5. Antonio López – €28,900
6. Mario Navarro – €22,600
7. Pelayo Gil – €16,720
8. Patrick Poterek – €11,500