The EPT Barcelona 100th Main Event broke all records as it kicked off last Thursday with 1,496 players throwing their hats into the ring. It is now officially the biggest EPT Main event on European soil. The playing arena welcomed big names as in Jason Mercier, Daniel Negreanu, Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald, Liv Boeree, Martin Finger and the list goes on. The heat is on at Casino Barcelona for the main event title and a whopping sum of €1,261,000 for the champ this season.
Day 1a and 1b saw an intense tussle of minds on the tables. Out of 1,496 field entries, over 900 players could make through to the Day 2 game. A grand prize pool of €7,255,600 is set to be distributed among Top 239 players with a minimum cash of €8,050. Jose Lamarca Capa entered the Day 2 as the topper on leaderboard with 193,300 chips. Only 17, 300 chips down, Marcelo Ramos Da Fonseca preceded him with 176,000 chips in total.
Cards picked up the pace on tables as the Day 2 progressed. At the end of day’s play and 6 levels of poker, 293 players funneled out to enter the Day 3. Vojtech Ruzicka held the top spot on leaderboard with 617,100 in chips. Martin Finger (502, 300), Max Pescatori (294,000) and Mike McDonald (130,200) are the pros staking below the expected levels, but continued their race to the main event title on Day 3.
As the Day 3 started, players with shorter stacks battled to skip bubbling which ended up very dramatically. In a remarkable turn of events, five players were busted in the same hand which put the officials in a dilemma about the bubble boy prize. The 240th was to be rewarded with $5,300 entry to the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open featuring a $10,000,000 guaranteed prize pool and a guitar. Apparently, the tournament saw 5 players competing for the bubble boy title, which organizers made of worth €6,440 in cash.
The main event continued its course, meanwhile, eliminating players as the payout is reserved for just 239 players. Andrei Konopelko from Belarus who gathered €1,451,000 chips is leading tables at the end of Day 3. With 1,315,000 chips the polish Piotr Sowinski has crawled up to 2nd position. EPT Berlin winner Davidi Kitai also had a day full of prosperity, and finished with 1,200,000 chips.
An intense display of skills is expected over the coming days as only 102 players have advanced to Day 4 of the 100th ETP Main event.
Stay tuned to Online Poker News for the further updates on European Poker Tour Season 11 Barcelona.