EPT Barcelona marred by robbery

With last year’s EPT Berlin robbery still fresh in the memory, it has emerged that poker players were once again lucky to escape with their lives after a bizarre series of events during last week’s EPT Barcelona.

According to reports, poker pros Carter Phillips, Kevin Stani, William Reynolds and Kayvan Payman were drinking in a Barcelona hookah bar until the early hours when a local gang confronted Payman on his way out of the bar.

The gang escaped to a nearby subway station with €4,000 from the Canadian pro’s pocket, and when the out-of-towners approached a nearby restaurant for help, their pleas fell on deaf and dangerous ears.

According to Reynolds: ‘[One member of staff] is holding a frying pan and the other is holding an 18in machete. I’m like wow these guys really want to help us. I approach the man with the machete attempting to talk a mix of simple English and Spanish when all of a sudden he comes at me with a Steven Segal kick straight to my chest that connects.’

‘He than begins to assume the role of Zorro and starts thrusting the blade directly at my heart with his first attempt making the smallest of contact. While he is doing this I am not trying to fight back and just continue to move back with my hands up in the air reaching for the sky in this little enclosed spot.’

‘At the same time the man with the frying pan is trying to crack Payman’s skull. The two guys we were trying to get help from end up causing more harm than the robbers.’

The pros managed to escape relatively unscathed, and the attack briefly caused Carter Phillips to doubt whether he’ll ever travel to Europe for poker again…

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