Marchetti and Iordache Among Big Stacks on Day 1b; Pons Advances
The second of three starting days of the 2019 888poker LIVE Barcelona €1,100 Main Event is in the books and attracted a field of 163 entries. After 12 levels of 45 minutes each, that number has been whittled down all the way to just 45 survivors and Maksims Gorbacs from Latvia topped the counts when all players had bagged and tagged their chips at Casino Barcelona.
In a tight race for the Day 1b lead, Gorbacs claimed 268,500 to his name, edging past Frederik De Linde Farrington (245,500) and Italy's Luca Marchetti (233,000). Especially Marchetti seemed poised to take the chip leader honors after spending the last few levels of the night on the same table as fellow big stacks Simone Rosano (183,000) and Giuseppe Carbone (100,000), but fell short and had to settle for the third-biggest stack.
Another player that surged towards the top of the leader board at the very end was Romania's Andrei Iordache, who advanced to Day 2 with a very healthy stack of 204,000. Iordache won a big flip with jacks against ace-king suited to knock out a player in the penultimate level of the night and added more chips with ace-queen to earn himself a top 10 stack on Day 1b.
Other notables that secured their seats for Day 2 already include Samuel Hernandez (146,000), Teunis Kooij (129,500), Salvatore Camarda (126,500), Marcello Miniucchi (100,500), Marius Stancescu (97,000) and 2018 888poker LIVE London finalist Christos Xanthopoulos (52,500).
Estonia's Siiri Saar, who is usually part of the live stream crew, won the Ladies Event in Bucharest and earned a Main Event package for Barcelona that way. Despite being down to as low as 5,000 mid-way through the day, Saar also advanced to Day 2 and may have to postpone her work commitments by turning 87,500 chips after Day 1b into another cash of the popular mid-stakes circuit.
Another big name that will be back for Day 2 is Fernando Pons. The Spaniard came to fame back in 2016 when he reached the final table of the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas and scored a $1,000,000 payday for his 9th place finish. Pons quickly doubled his stack in the first levels of the day and cruised with an above-average stack for most of the day. However, he experienced a setback in the last level when his gutshot straight flush draw was unable to crack pocket aces. Nonetheless, Pons secured made it through and bagged up 80,000.
Other notables were less fortunate and will have to take another shot at the guaranteed prize pool of €550,000 in the final starting day such as Antonin Teisseire, Sergio Alonso, Francois Evard, Tom-Aksel Bedell, Silviu Baltateanu, €2,200 High Roller runner-up Sonny Franco, Diego Gomez, Claudio Di Giacomo and Carmen Zainescu.
In the final levels of the night, Evard first busted when he jammed with king-nine on the button into the pocket tens of online qualifier Daniel Constantinescu in the big blind. The Swiss returned for another shot and flopped top pair with jack-ten, however, Erik Ostergaard turned a wheel with ace-deuce.
The third and final flight is expected to be the biggest and kicks off at 3 p.m. local time. Expected to be among those to take part are the 888poker ambassadors Martin Jacobson and Kara Scott, defending champion Adrian Costin Constantin and plenty of other poker enthusiasts from near and far. They all have another incentive to enter the tournament, as the winner can also look forward to a package for the 2019 WSOP Main Event worth $12,600, courtesy of WSOP sponsor 888poker.
After the first break of Day 1c, the action will also be streamed on the 888poker YouTube channel and Facebook page with hole cards displayed on a security delay of 30 minutes. The PokerNews team will provide all the action from the floor here at Casino Barcelona until a champion is crowned on Monday, June 3rd, 2019.
, Xanthopoulos checked and Kanaan continued for 5,800. A near instant all in by the Greek followed and Kanaan immediately asked for a count.
turn and 
river failed to improve Kanaan and he joined the rail in the penultimate level of Day 1b. Xanthopoulos already has a final table appearance in the 888poker LIVE Main Events to his name as he finished in 8th place in the Asper's Casino in 2018.
flop for 3,000 and Barkay raised to 9,000, which Robbiano called. On the 
turn, Robbiano check-shoved for more than 45,000 and Barkay reluctantly called after nearly two minutes.
river further improved Barkay to a full house and he won the big pot.
and that was it for Balzano.
, while Pons mucked 
. Franco had 
and hit the rail, but will re-enter shortly.
and scored a knockout.
. One of them was Gabriel Podovei with 
flop. Initial raiser Luca Marchetti called after brief consideration and the following cards were revealed.
turn bricked, however, the 
