Raul van Boxtel, a Dutchman with Spanish parent and local resident, has chipped up nicely over on table 11 and just bowed out on the 
turn when facing a bet of 2,200 and a call with Alf Martinsson involved.
The 
on the river brought no further action and Martinsson tabled the 
, which won the pot as his sole remaining opponent mucked 
for a missed gutshot.
On a five-way flop of 
, all five players invested 1,000 each including Gheorghe Podovei in the cutoff, Ramlal Basdeo on the button and Alexandre Mitjavilla Moix in the blinds. Also involved in the action was early big stack Luca Marchetti, but all further action died down as the 
turn and 
river were checked through.
Podovei tabled 
for two pair, Moix had 
for a straight and Marchetti mucked an ace-queen.
With the High Roller in full swing and the Day 1a field growing by the minute, let's have a look at some of the shots courtesy of Gema Cristobal / 888poker.
Gheorghe Podovei and Milad Oghabian have entered Day 1a of the Main Event after they were eliminated in the €2,200 High Roller. The former joked "never try to bluff a guy that has the nuts in a 2k buy-in." Another very familiar face in poker Spain has also entered and that happens to be 2017 WSOPE Main Event champion Marti Roca de Torres.
Level: 2
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 0
On the heads-up turn of 
, Marvin Hannemann and Jean-Pasquale Zuccarelli both invested 1,300 to see the on the river and it was Hannemann that led for 3,700. Zuccarelli called and Hannemann rolled over 
for trips sevens.
Zucarelli mucked the 
and reluctantly also revealed the for the worse kicker to lose a decent chunk of his stack early on.
Maya Geller just arrived for another trip to Europe and sat down a few minutes after the start of Day 1a. Also now in action are Luca Marchetti, Salvatore Camarda and Adria Colomina Guitart. According to the screens there are already 48 players registered halfway through the first level of the day.
Christopher Tamuty sat down and immediately chatted up his opponents in English with a smile on the face. He then went on to get involved in a hand with Evgenii Cherniak, who opened to 300 and Tamuty flat-called.
On the 
flop, Cherniak checked and Tamuty checked back. Cherniak check-called a bet of 500 on the 
turn and check-folded to a bet of 800 on the 
river.
Right from the start there were already 32 players registered and among them were Raul van Boxtel, Francesco Delfoco, Kevin Stani, Ismael Penalver Del Rio, and David Murillo Parra. The field is expected to grow significantly in the hours to come with all those eliminated in the €2,200 High Roller jumping in for more poker action today.
With the usual late starting times during the week at Casino Barcelona and 12 levels of 45 minutes scheduled, a long night of poker lies ahead for all players that want to punch their tickets for Day 2 in the first of three starting flights. On top of that, there appears to be a dinner break scheduled also and that brings the end of Day 1a and tomorrow's Day 1b to past 4 a.m. local time.
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