Some of the top professionals in the world of poker have been trying for years to win a WPT Championship. It is a tough, tough feat to accomplish. So to win one, whilst systematically destroying every opponent seated on that final table, is simply memorable, especially when you become the youngest ever WPT Champion in the process.
216 professional and amateur players alike all turned up at the Gran Casino, Barcelona with a dream to be crowned the WPT Spanish Championships Champion. For 18-year old Lukas Berglund he was still dreaming of graduating from college. By the end of four days of exhilarating poker he had still not graduated from college, but instead had graduated from the school of hard poker knocks. There was something about this kid from day one. He seemed simply unflappable and always in contention without really drawing that much attention to himself.
He came into the final table nestled nicely in fourth place and it was from this spot that he grew and grew, eating up all in his path until by the time he held aloft his winning cheque of €206,000 he had completed his magnificent seven eliminations and here they are once more.
Magnificent Elimination One and Two – Ristola (8th) and Koren (7th)
A final table defining moment for Berglund. Not only did he eliminate two players in one hand but he eliminated two of the most dangerous players at the table. He needed a little bit of luck to do it, but that is part of this great, mind screwing game we love to play.
Artur Koren moved all-in from the cut-off for 430,000, which was quickly followed by a shove from Berglund seated on the button and a third shove by Markus Ristola who was seated in the small blind. We had a three-way all-in with Berglund covering both players.
Berglund: 
Ristola: 
Koren: 
Flop: 
Berglund came from behind and was a huge favourite to knock both players out.
Turn: 
Ristola was gone because a queen would make Koren a straight.
River: 
Berglund tripled up and eliminated both Koren and Ristola at the same time. Koren had more chips at the start of the hand so he finished in 7th spot and Ristola in 8th.
Magnificent Elimination Three – Alexander Sidorin
Not much colour just a simple all-in and call. Sidorin was on the button holding 
and Lukas Berglund, the one man wrecking crew at this table, called with 
. The board brought Sidorin more outs but they did not materialise and Berglund eliminated his third person at this final table.
Board: 
Magnificent Elimination Four – Guillem Usero
Berglund raised to 80,000 from the hi-jack and Guillem Usero three-bet from the small blind making it 190,000 to play and Berglund made the call.
Flop: 
Usero slid a tower of white chips across the line and the bet was a clean 100,000. Berglund asked for a quick count before moving all-in and Usero called.
Berglund was holding 
for the open ended straight draw and back door flush draw and Usero had 
Turn: 
Some more outs for Berglund.
River: 
Bingo! Berglund eliminates his fourth players at this final table.
Magnificent Elimination Five – Jorge Duffour
Berglund raised to 110,000 from the cut-off and Duffour moved all-in on the button and Berglund called and it was coin flip time.
Berglund: 
Duffour:
We didn’t have to wait to long for the pain to come crushing down on Duffour.
Flop: 
Turn:
River:
Magnificent Elimination Six – Frederic Bussot
Bussot was allowing himself to drop as low as two big blinds. Berglund was just crushing him with waves of all-in shoves that were not meeting any resistance, until finally Bussot’s moment came just like the other five before him.
Berglund moved all-in from the small blind holding and Bussot called holding 
.
A set on the flop easing the Berglund nerves somewhat – 
.
Magnificent Elimination Seven – Romain Matteoli
It was heads up and the encounter lasted 15-minutes where we saw three flops before the end came.
Lukas Berglund raised to 120,000 and Romain Matteoli called.
Flop:
This flop had fate written all over it and when Matteoli bet 120,000 and Berglund called you could sense it was the tournament defining moment.
Turn:
Matteoli checked, Berglund bet 240,000, Matteoli moved all-in and Berglund snap-called.
When the cards were turned over only a six on the river would save the skin of Matteoli.
Matteoli:
Berglund:
River:
And there you have it Lukas Berglund’s Magnificent Seven!
For a full recap of the Final Table action follow the Party Poker Blog here. The final table player profiles can be found here.
WPT Spanish Championship Final Table Picture Gallery
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