The break came at just the right time for Elias Gutierrez.
The Team PokerStars Pro could feel the tournament slipping from his grasp. Gutierrez began his heads-up match with Russia’s Alexander Zubov with a massive chip lead, but Zubov steadily wore him down until he moved atop the leaderboard. Then came a 15-minute break, a chance for Gutierrez to regroup and refocus on capturing the biggest title of his poker title. Whatever he did in those minutes worked, as Gutierrez stormed back to the top and ended up defeating Zubov to win the European Poker Tour Cyprus $25,000 Super High Roller Warm Up and $417,570.
“It means a lot because I always feel the pressure of winning, especially creating content. So when the heads-up was not going my way I was feeling very intense,” Gutierrez said after securing the trophy. “The break was great for me. I could relax a bit and rethink what I was doing. And in the end, I end up winning, which is amazing so I’m very happy.”
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elias Gutierrez | Spain | $417,570 |
| 2 | Alexander Zubov | Russia | $273,700 |
| 3 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | $198,400 |
| 4 | Dimitar Danchev | Bulgaria | $150,500 |
| 5 | Artsiom Lasouski | Belarus | $116,300 |
| 6 | Enrico Camosci | Italy | $89,000 |
| 7 | Aleksejs Ponakovs | Latvia | $68,400 |
| 8 | Zhendong Li | China | $54,700 |
Gutierrez has primarily been an online player throughout his career, including winning a SCOOP title in 2021. While he has live cashes dating back to 2010, the first prize from this event nearly equals all of his previous results. It’s his first live tournament win in 14 years and first-ever on the EPT. And it came against an elite field of 57 of the biggest and best names in the game, an accomplishment that will make Gutierrez focus more on playing live in the future.
“I would not say that this is validation. At the end of the day I’ve been playing poker for 14 years, 15 maybe, so it’s been a while. It’s true that I’ve been playing online most of the time, but particularly now in the future I see myself playing live poker mainly,” he said.
Gutierrez was followed throughout the tournament by a team of videographers chronicling every hand he played for his fans. Gutierrez has more than 200,000 subscribers on YouTube and 120,000 on Twitch. He enjoys sharing his journey with his fans and letting them experience his poker triumphs. This is the biggest one yet, and it will allow Gutierrez to relive this moment over and over again.
“It is my other passion, to create content,” he said. “It means double when you win a tournament. This is special today, but it will also be special the day I can upload this video and people can relive this experience from a different angle. Both things, creating content and playing poker professionally, are my two passions and I’m very lucky that I can mix both of them and do what I do.”
Tournament Recap
The $25,000 Super High Roller Warm Up attracted a total field of 57 entries, building a prize pool of $1,368,570. Kayhan Mokri, Juan Pardo, Roman Hrabec, Patrick Leonard, and $20,000 event champion Ognyan Dimov were among those who were eliminated as the field whittled down to two tables.
Gutierrez won a big pot off Enrico Camosci when he rivered a set of jacks and Camosci called his 850,000 raise on the river as Gutierrez crossed 2,000,000 and took the chip lead. Lewis Spencer, Artur Martirosian, and Ren Lin fell just short of the final table, as did Mikalai Vaskaboinikau in stunning fashion. Vaskaboinikau was up to 2,000,000 and in second place at the final two tables until Adrian Mateos rivered a flush to crack his queens and double up. Artsiom Lasouski then doubled up with ace-jack to knock Vaskaboinikau all the way down to 180,000 as he was eliminated shortly after.
Camosci started to run away from the field after busting Leonard Maue in 11th place. He then picked up aces against Manuel Fritz’s kings to set the nine-handed final table as Camosci took a massive chip lead with 4,500,000, more than 2,000,000 ahead of his closest challenger.
The final nine players were also on the money bubble as only the top eight would be guaranteed a min-cash of $54,700. Camosci took down nearly every pot uncontested as he built up his stack to 7,000,000, controlling nearly half the chips in play at one point. After more than an hour of play on the bubble, Aliaksei Boika picked up two queens against Gutierrez and was all in for 550,000, but Gutierrez spiked a set of tens on the river to send Boika out as the bubble boy.
The pace of eliminations quickly picked up. Zhendong Li was out in eighth place when he ran king-nine into Camosci’s king-queen. Camosci also took out Aleksejs Ponakovs in seventh by hitting a king on the turn to beat Ponakovs’ flopped pair of queens.
Zubov finally proved Camosci was beatable when he won a flip with nines against ace-jack to double for 730,000. Gutierrez won two pots off Camosci as he began to narrow the gap between them, then struck the final table's biggest blow. Camosci moved all in on the river and Gutierrez snap-called for 3,150,000 with a set of jacks. Camosci only had missed straight and flush draws as he tumbled all the way down to 1,800,000 while Gutierrez took a massive lead.
Camosci’s downfall was complete when he moved all in for 2,200,000 with ace-queen and Gutierrez called with nines. Gutierrez won the flip to send Camosci crashing to the rail in sixth place as Gutierrez moved up past 10,000,000, nearly 9,000,000 more than any other player at the time.
The short stacks at the table were left to battle for survival. Zubov survived an all in with a chop against Gutierrez, then doubled up for 430,000 when he flopped a pair of aces. Lasouski was down to 280,000 as he called with jack-six against Dimitar Danchev’s king-seven. Danchev finished with two pair to send Lasouski to the rail in fifth. Zubov then made a flush to double off Mateos and leave the EPT champion with less than three big blinds.
Mateos doubled up once, then picked up two tens to knock out Danchev in fourth place. Mateos’ run soon ended in third when he ran king-nine into Gutierrez’s ace-nine.
Gutierrez had a 10-1 chip lead at the start of heads-up with 12,150,000 to 2,135,000, but Zubov found an early double with a flopped pair of queens and took down most of the pots to chip away at Gutierrez’s advantage. Zubov eventually took the chip lead and led 9,900,000 to 4,300,000 when the two players took the fateful 15-minute break. “I need some fresh air,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez returned from break and promptly doubled up for 3,875,000 when his ace-six held on against Zubov’s king-ten, putting Gutierrez back in the lead. Zubov fell down to 3,500,000 when he limped in, Gutierrez shoved from the big blind, and Zubov called with jack-ten suited. Gutierrez had ace-five as the board gave Zubov straight and flush draws going to the river, but he missed all his outs and the trophy belonged to Gutierrez.
Despite his win today, Gutierrez won’t press his luck and play the $50,000 Super High Roller tomorrow. “No, I’m going to rest,” he said. After playing until past 4 a.m. here in Cyprus and battling back to win the title, he deserves some time to reflect on what he just accomplished.
