2016 EPT Barcelona Main Event Day 1b: Andrey Sharonov Leads Biggest Ever EPT
Sun, sea, sand, and lots of poker! Barcelona delivered once again, as the PokerStars European Poker Tour attendance record from last year's stop was shattered. On Day 1b, 1,291 players put €5,300 on the line to take a shot at the biggest EPT Main Event in history. Combined with Day 1a's total of 468 players, the field already is unofficially at 1,759 players. With late registration open until the start of Day 2, the new attendance record is expected to be pushed even higher.
The day saw eight levels of 75-minute play and at the end of it all, it was Andrey Sharonov from Russia finishing atop the leaderboard. Sharonov built his starting stack of 30,000 up to a whopping 278,600, claiming the overall chip lead for both Day 1a and 1b in the process.
Sharonov is followed by, Marco Caza (262,000), Mikhail Molchanov (210,300), Quentin Roussey (170,000), Alin Grasu (190,000) and Miroslav Forman (171,000) amongst others.
While most players were still trickling in at the start of the day, Vanessa Selbst was already on her way out. The Team PokerStars Pro shoved her king-high into Gaelle Baumann's set of aces, ending her Main Event run within the first hour. Day 1b also didn't favor Daniel Negreanu, Antoine Saout, Johnny Lodden, Sofia Lövgren, Robin Ylitalo, Andre Akkari, Jason Wheeler, Naoya Kihara, and Ismael Bojang, as they all headed to the rail.
For Negreanu, his day ended when he saw a flop cheaply from the small blind with 9x6x up against Julio Ribeiro who had checked his big blind with Q♥4♥. The Q♠9♠4♣ flop prompted a check-call from Negreanu, after a bet from Ribeiro. The 3♣ on the turn saw another check-call from Negreanu, this time after a 2,800 bet. The 6♣ that fell on the river would be the nail in the coffin for Negreanu. After a check from Negreanu, Ribeiro moved all-in and Negreanu made the call with his rivered two-pair. Unfortunately for him, his two-pair was no good and the Team PokerStars Pro was eliminated.
Notable players still in contention, include William Kassouf (79,500), Kitty Kuo (75,200), Janne "Savjz" Mikkonen (73,300), Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer (71,000), Felipe Ramos (70,700), Jake Cody (62,000), Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (34,100), Gaelle Baumann (63,300), Kristen Bicknell (57,300), Team PokerStars SportStar Fatima Moreira de Melo (55,600), Cate Hall (35,100), Jennifer Shahade (33,600), Viktor Blom (23,300), Xuan Liu (20,000), and Dzmitry Urbanovich (16,000).
Day 2 gets underway on Wednesday at 12 p.m. local time. The PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to bring you all the action until a champion is crowned on Sunday.
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A former professional poker player with a background in sports marketing and journalism. Yori has been a part of PokerNews since 2016 and manages the content team.
