A total of 767 players (259 from Day 1A and 508 from Day 1B) returned for Day 2 of the record-breaking 2019 EPT Barcelona €5,300 EPT Main Event yesterday at the Casino Barcelona. A new attendance record had already been achieved before the day started with already 1,960 entries. With the late registration for the marquee event remaining open until the start of Day 2, another 28 entries came in and it took the total field to 1,988 entries to create €9,641,800 in the total prizepool.
With 767 players returning to the felts, the tournament staff added an additional sixth level of 90 minutes. The action on Day 2 was fast and not only did the bubble burst in Carlos Branco who lost a flip with A-K against the jacks of Alexis Urli, but the field came down to just 191 players. Sweden’s Simon Mattsson (1,191,000) ended the day as chip leader, followed by Alexis Ibarrola (1,069,000).
Other big stacks on Day 2 end included Andres Korn (974,000), Jean Ferreira (910,000), Stefan Fabian (810,000), Marian Mik (792,000), Ben Farrell (760,000), Shannon Shorr (734,000), and Diego Falcone (698,000). Zhen Cai who finished 6th in the 2019 WSOP Main Event bagged up 648,000 in chips, Martins Adeniya ended up with a stack of 536,000 chips and French rapper and TV personality Bruno amassed “Kool Shen” Lopes 508,000 chips. Among the PokerStars ambassadors, it was only former hockey professional Fatima Moreira de Melo (236,000) who advanced to Day 3 and the rest of her fellow ambassadors including Steve Enriquez (224th place for €9,160) fell before the money.
296 places are paid in this flagship tournament with a min-cash of €8,390. More than 100 players have already received payouts including Govert Metaal, Patrik Antonius, Anton Wigg, Day 1A chip leader Benjamin Chalot, Sergio Aido, Morten Mortensen, Leo Margets, Martin Jacobson, Brian Green, Tony Dunst, Michael Lech, Mark Teltscher and one Indian Sumit Asrani who began with 80,500 chips but did pretty well to stack up and eventually finished 291st for €8,390 (INR 6.69 Lac).
Team India
8 Indians had returned for Day 2, namely Raman Gujral with 113,400 chips ( who started Day 2 as the chip leader among the Indians), Rahul Melwani (99,800), Sumit Asrani (80,400), Kunal Punjwani (55,000) & Anil Gulati (11,700) from Day 1B. These players were joined by three other Indians in Sahil Chutani (75,000), Kavin Shah (32,600) and Rajat Sharma (30,500) who had qualified from Day 1A.
Out of the 8 Indians, only three managed to advance to Day 3. Sahil Chuttani who had finished 8th in the APPT Manila Main Event earlier this month bagged the biggest stack with 483,000 chips, while Kunal Punjwani and the veteran Raman Gujral bagged 242,000 and 173,000 in chips respectively.
Sumit Asrani was the only Indian challenger to finish in the money on Day 2 of the EPT Main Event. He earned €8,390 (INR 6.69 Lac) for his 291st place finish. The rest of five Indians – Anil Gulati, Kavin Shah, Kartik Ved, Rahul Melwani and Rajat Sharma got eliminated before the money bubble.
Top 10 Chip Counts At Day 2 End:
- Simon Mattsson – 1,191,000
- Alexis Ibarrola – 1,069,000
- Andres Korn – 974,000
- Jean Ferreira – 910,000
- Stefan Fabian – 810,000
- Marian Mik – 792,000
- Ben Farrell – 760,000
- Shannon Shorr – 734,000
- Adam Jonsson – 733,000
- Ramiro Petrone – 722,000