Online Poker Press

Marc Goodwin has a shot at his first major title heading into the PokerStars EPT Barcelona final table Wednesday.The PokerStars EPT Barcelona final table is set and when the remaining eight players sit down to decide a champion Wednesday, Europe’s top player from 2008 will be looking for his first major tournament victory.

“I really want to win an EPT; it’s really important to me,” said veteran UK pro Marc Goodwin.

“I won European player of the year last year and all the rankings, but I didn’t win a major competition along the way. I did win the GUKPT Manchester, but it obviously wasn’t as big.”

To be specific, Goodwin turned the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour into his personal ATM last year, running deep in countless preliminary tournaments and winning the Manchester main event title, leading to the top spot in the GUKPT Rankings and the prestigious European Rankings.

But despite the fact he has over $1 million in career tournament earnings, a major title has proved elusive for Goodwin thus far, with a third place finish in the 2005 Monte Carlo Millions his best result to date.

To be fair, Goodwin skipped a fair amount of the PokerStars EPT stops over the past few years, but with a sponsorship from Littlewoods Poker and the Ongame Network this season, he says he’s here to stay.

“I didn’t play in a lot of these, to be honest, because the way they structured them all before it was a luckfest,” he said.

“One week the postman won, the next week the milkman. It was very rare that you ever saw anyone that you knew on a final table, except in Monte Carlo where you get a 30,000 chip starting stack. They’re using that structure everywhere now and that’s what brings me back to play.”

Although Goodwin will come in second in chips, trailing 20-year-old American chip leader Carter Phillips, he’s still incredibly deep and plans to play a patient style.

“In my opinion, if I’m better than the other players, I’d rather play a lot of small pots than gamble a lot and let them get a shot at me,” he said. “I’m happy with my big stack. I’ve taken my chances when I’ve had a good hand or I’ve made a move when I felt it was the right time and I’d rather play that way.

The man on top.

“I’d rather play a bunch of small pots than a few big ones where people can get lucky on you and you’re suddenly dead.”

Goodwin is also counting on years of experience in front of the TV cameras to pay dividends in Barcelona with a final eight that are each making their first EPT final table appearance.

“It is a big advantage, but conversely, it can go against you because [some players] can get brave on TV and make moves they wouldn’t normally – hero calls and raises with air,” he said. “That can easily go against you, because someone that you might previously have been able to push around a bit, all of the sudden has no fear on TV.

“I’ve been in this situation hundreds of times. Whether it’s in major TV tournaments or live events, I’ve just been here lots of times. I haven’t won a massive one, but I’ve been around all the best players in the world all the time, so I know what’s going on.”

The story coming into EPT Barcelona’s penultimate day was the presence of five former EPT champs all looking to become the tour’s first two-time main event winner.

However, Jan Boubli, Roland de Wolfe, Bertrand Grospellier, Jens Kyllonen, and Mike McDonald were all laid to waste before the final table was set.

In their place, Phillips, Goodwin, Canadian Matt Lapossie, the UK’s Asa Smith, local Spaniard Santiago Terrazas, Greece’s Georgios Kapalas, Finn Toni Ojala and Romanian Mihai Manole will all be taking their first shot at PokerStars EPT Glory.

To follow the entire EPT Barcelona final table from start to finish, click through to PokerListings’ EPT Barcelona Live Updates page beginning at 2 p.m. CEST Wednesday.