Seat 7: Sebastian Malec, 21, Warsaw/Poland, PokerStars qualifier (7,330,000)
![[user38873]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
Polish player Sebastian Malec qualified for the EPT13 Barcelona Main Event for just €27. The 21-year-old from Warsaw played chess competitively from the age of six to 15 but when his chess coach travelled to Las Vegas for the 2010 World Series of Poker, Malec started following the poker scene. He immediately fell in love with the game - and, in particular, the European Poker Tour. In 2014, Malec went to study at the University of Warwick and, while there, took the opportunity to visit EPT11 London. "It was only two hours away so I thought why not? I was reading literally every update from the tournaments back then and watching all the live streams," he said.
At EPT London, Malec was thrilled to meet his poker heroes for the first time, players such as Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier, Phillip Gruissem and Dominik Panka - and get his picture taken with them. Here at EPT Barcelona, he’s been playing alongside Mercier in person - a dream come true for the excited youngster. Malec's EPT Main Event debut came last year in Barcelona when he made it to 76th place for €15,600 - his biggest cash until today. He also played last season's EPT Malta and EPT Dublin Main Events. He's planning to move to Maastricht just after EPT13 Barcelona. "I'm going to change direction. My subject in England was math and statistics but I'm going to study art and culture in the Netherlands," says Malec, who has a strong passion for movies.