One of the players seated at the few tables set up in the secondary room is Niall Farrell. The Scottish poker icon, #1 on the Scotland Hendon Mob all-time money list, has already stacked up to 90,000 during the first five levels of the day.
In his latest hand, in what was presumably a three-bet pot, Farrell added another batch of chips to his stack. On a flop, Farrell bet 3,000 and received a call from his opponent, one of the late alternates. On the turn, Farrell check-called a bet of 4,700. The river went check/check.
"Firaldo" flipped over for a rivered flush and his opponent mucked.
Every cloud has a silver lining; Sergio Garcia admits that he didn’t have his best year in golf, resulting in him just missing out on the 2018 FedEx Cup Playoffs but this did mean that he got to play at the PokerStars European Poker Tour in Barcelona.
“I love playing here [in Barcelona],” said Garcia on break from the EPT €5,300 Main Event. “Usually I can’t come because I’m in the US playing in the Playoffs, but this year it worked out; it’s been a nice way to disconnect a little bit.”
While he may be playing the Main Event today, yesterday Garcia took part in an eight-handed €25k Charity tournament alongside several other sports stars, including Neymar and Gerard Pique. Each player had a chosen charity, with Garcia playing for the Sergio Garcia Foundation.
“The Sergio Garcia Foundation was founded in 2002,” said Garcia. “It mainly focuses on helping children; from donations for cancer research to building a new X-ray hospital in Madrid.”
Sergio Garcia competing in the €25,000 Charity Tournament with Gerard Pique, Neymar and Andre Akkari (l-r)
Unfortunately, Garcia didn’t win but he says that the event was “good fun for a good cause.”
“It was a really fun table. Neymar was running really well. You’ve got to thank PokerStars for making it happen and letting us have some good fun while we’re here.”
Golf’s fallow months tend to fall between December and January, which is when we usually see Garcia on the poker circuit; playing at the PCA in the Bahamas.
“Barcelona is definitely different, but both stops are amazing. I know that the PCA is going to be incredible with some of the new events they’re going to have next year. It’s going to be even more packed than it is usually!
“If nothing happens it looks like I will be there, so that will be fun.”
Sergio Garcia enjoying his time in the PokerStars EPT Barcelona Main Event
With the Main Event attracting over a thousand entries today alone, the tournament room is packed with players.
“I know that EPT Barcelona has been growing for the last eight or nine years, and that’s down to what a great job the whole team does while they’re here.
“The number of players is just amazing. I think that they could add two more rooms and they’d fill them up too!
Garcia has been playing poker since 2008 and admits that he does have plans to potentially play more poker as his golf career begins to wind down
“I’d love to say that I’ve improved [since 2008] – I hope so! Unfortunately, I just don’t play enough. As I get older and maybe begin to play a little less golf, then maybe I’ll get more into it.
“The great thing about playing poker is that if your mind is fresh then you can play it. You don’t need to be in good shape physically to play well! But to me it’s more about the challenge; I love competing in everything I do.
“Whether it’s golf or poker, or even football or tennis, whenever I play I love the competition side of things and I love a good challenge.”
Sergio Garcia at the poker tables
This week saw the announcement of “The Match,” a heads-up golf match between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Along those lines, we asked Garcia who he’d like to go heads-up with at the poker tables.
“Even though my chances wouldn’t be great [laughs] I’d love to go up against a poker player. Playing a guy like Daniel Negreanu – I know he loves his golf – that would be fun.
“Juan Manuel Pastor is a good friend of mine, or Fatima [Moreira de Melo]. I’ve made some really good friends, so any one of them would be amazing to play against.”
Garcia has said previously that the patience required in golf can aid him at the poker tables.
“You’d have to find someone that doesn’t show too much emotion,” said Garcia, when asked which golfer would excel as a poker player. “When you’re really patient you usually do really well; maybe guys like Adam Scott or Rory [McIlroy]; I think they’d both be good poker players.
“I know some of them probably don’t even think about [poker], so they’d probably be sneakily good if they got the chance to play!”
Patience on the table is as good as patience off the table, with Garcia now playing the waiting game until Ryder Cup selection.
“Everything is going to depend on if I get picked or not,” said Garcia ruefully. “Hopefully I will, but after that, I’ve got tournaments in Spain, South Africa Dubai and Hong Kong; a little bit of travelling to end my year.”
Travelling the world and playing in different countries, maybe Garcia’s more of a poker player than it seems!
Pascal Levaudel was all in for 1,500 on the turn with the board reading and two players called, including Kitty Kuo. The river was the and Levaudel revealed . Kuo showed , the third player showed and the pot went to the Taiwanese pro.
flop, Farrell bet 3,000 and received a call from his opponent, one of the late alternates. On the 
turn, Farrell check-called a bet of 4,700. The 
river went check/check.
over for a rivered flush and his opponent mucked.
and two players called, including Kitty Kuo. The river was the 
and Levaudel revealed 
. Kuo showed 
, the third player showed 
and the pot went to the Taiwanese pro.
against the 
and Alfonse's tens held.
