Stephen Song retreated to his rail, a wry smile across his face. He was heads-up for the 2024 EPT Barcelona title, covering his opponent – respected British tournament pro Andrew Hulme – and the pair had all the chips in the middle. His ace-seven off suit was behind Hulme’s pocket eights, but Song had been running hot all day. So it wasn’t a complete shock when the turn brought Song a gutshot straight, delivering him the win and a €1,290,386 ($1.425M) payday – the largest of his career.
Song bested a field of 1,975 entries, the fourth-largest in EPT history, according to PokerStars. But for those who have followed Song’s career over the past five years, seeing him deep in a large-field event was as much of a surprise as seeing him bink the turn. Song has made a habit of repeatedly fading the field in some of the toughest large-field events on the calendar, earning him a reputation as one of the best on the modern landscape to do so.
Feel free to debate whether Song has officially earned a coveted Poker Triple Crown (WPT, EPT, WSOP titles) but wherever you land on that issue, there’s no doubt that for each of his major titles, he swam through a sea of would-be sharks to get to shore. In 2019, when won his WSOP gold bracelet in a $1,000 NLHE event for $341,854 (his largest at the time), he was the last player standing in a field of 2,477. His WPT Prime Championship title was won from a field twice that size when he outlasted the 5,430 entries, including runner-up Lara Eisenberg, at Wynn Las Vegas in Season 22 for his previous high score of $712,650.
Those are just the top of the resume titles. Throw in there a third-place finish in the 2021 WSOP $1,500 ‘The Closer’ event (1,903 entries), a final table in the 2018 WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open (1,244 entries) and finishing in 57th in this year’s record-setting WSOP Main Event (10,112 entries) – putting him in the top .5% of the field. It was also his second […]
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