Veteran UK poker pro Barny Boatman catapulted himself to the top of the EPT Paris Main Event leaderboard with just 18 players left after a massive pot towards the end of Day 4.
He tangled with the volatile Eric Afriat, who had stated he was going to play aggressively for the rest of the night. Boatman was obviously listening.
With 15 minutes left on the clock, Afriat raised with K♦️️Q♦️️ and picked up calls from Hans Erlandsson on the button with fives and Boatman in the big blind with J♠9♠.
The J♦️️8♦️️3♣ flop spelled action, and after Erlandsson folded, Boatman called two bets, the first for 250,000 on the flop and the second for a chunky 750,000 on the turn.
The 2♣ turn and 2♠ river bricked, but Afriat exerted maximum pressure, putting Boatman all in. Boatman still had 2,635,000 chips left, and he let out a little sigh, sat back, studied the board, took a quick look at Afriat, used his first time bank chip, and then made the massive call.
That call left him as chip leader, with a stack of 7,750,000, good for a massive 127 big blinds when the players come back tomorrow.
Rattle out the pram
"Good call," said Afriat. "I'm tired, and I want to go to bed," Boatman replied, only half joking.
Afriat wasn't finished. "What a call! The most incredible I've seen. Tournament life, big money, finish in 11 minutes... You see my hand? King-queen of diamonds, I can't stop."
It looked like he was taking it well. Then it all went a bit sour.
Afriat started blaming the dealer and then announced he was playing all of his time bank chips to run down the clock for the rest of the night.
"That's out of line," said James Hartigan on the Twitch stream. "I'm sorry, this is a case for calling the floor."
"Sorry guys, I know it's not the etiquette," Afriat said. It was a tragic masterclass in tilt, played out in front of the cameras. He kept talking to Boatman as well. But just as he did in the hand, Boatman came out on top here as well.
"It was a crazy, crazy call for your tournament life... ten minutes left," Afriat said.
"Yes, but it's my tournament life, not my actual life," quipped Boatman, still stacking Afriat's chips.
One for the good guys
You won't find many people railing against Boatman for the next two days.
One of the original Hendon Mob crew back in the day (the same crew that launched The Hendon Mob website that's still used as the bible by tournament players today), Boatman has been playing the EPT since it started.
His best Main Event result on the tour was fourth place at EPT San Remo in 2010. He came 23rd in the EPT Grand Final back in 2005. His best live cash is $546,080, which he got with the first of his two WSOP bracelets when he won a $1,500 no-limit event in 2013.
He's still mixing it with the best all these years later. He came runner-up in a €1,500 no-limit event at last year's WSOPE. He came third in a mixed PLO event at the WSOP in Vegas the year before. He's generally considered one of the nicest people in the game, and he keeps everyone entertained with his British wit on Twitter.
There's a long way to go, but there will be a lot of people rooting for Boatman over the next couple of days.
EPT Paris Main Event Day 5 stacks
| Place | Player | Chips |
| 1 | Barny Boatman | 7,620,000 |
| 2 | Farid Jattin | 5,660,000 |
| 3 | Sindre Hansen | 5,115,000 |
| 4 | Owen Dodd | 4,310,000 |
| 5 | Ami Barer | 3,610,000 |
| 6 | David Kaufmann | 3,210,000 |
| 7 | David Tous | 2,935,000 |
| 8 | Hans Erlandsson | 2,840,000 |
| 9 | Peter Jorgne | 2,320,000 |
| 10 | Gonzalo Almeida | 2,310,000 |
| 11 | Mathias Siljander | 2,275,000 |
| 12 | Dimitar Danchev | 2,100,000 |
| 13 | Lorenzo Arduini | 2,005,000 |
| 14 | Aleksejs Ponakovs | 1,655,000 |
| 15 | Eric Afriat | 1,225,000 |
| 16 | Francesco Delfoco | 1,175,000 |
| 17 | Leo Worthington-Leese | 1,140,000 |
| 18 | Eliot Hudon | 890,000 |
Images courtesy of PokerStars
