David Vamplew has got his work cut out if he is to repeat his EPT London success here at the Casino de Barcelona.
From what I have seen today, he has struggled to get above the starting stack of 30,000 chips and when i last checked in with him he was down to just 6,000, made up of a single yellow 5,000 chip and a red 1,000 one.
He was sat playing tiddlywinks with his two remaining chips and a few moments later, a slew of green 25 denomination chips were passed to him. It turns out he was all-in from the cutoff and his primative game must have helped his blind steal get through. Surely that is the only reason, no?
Team PokerStars Pro Juan Maceiras has been eliminated at the hands of Mike Binger. Maceiras and Binger clashed heads pre flop and Maceiras had Pocket Kings and Binger Pocket Aces.
Today at the PokerStars.com EPT Barcelona we got an astounding 495 runners, making the total number of runners for this here tournament 758. We think you'll agree, that is an impressive increase over last year's 478.
Prize pool information will hopefully be with us soon.
There was already one short-stacked gentleman all in when we arrived preflop, a small side pot had formed between Daniel Negreanu and the gentleman on the button, and the flop was about to be dealt. It came down and Negreanu checked, before calling the 4,000 bet from his opponent.
They both checked the turn and Negreanu checked the river as well. His opponent now bet 10,000, and Negreanu spent a little while looking forlornly at his remaining 21,000 stack before folding. And indeed he was rewarded for his fold when the button gent turned over for a rivered Broadway straight. The all-in gentleman laughed as he left, and the chap on the button took the pot.
With the EPT blind structure being one of the best, if not the best, in the business, many of the huge crop of players have taken to non-poker activities to keep them entertained.
We have Alfonso Amendola sat watching a film whilst he waits for a spot to move his dwindling stack into the middle with. Then we have Team PokerStars Pro, Daniel Negreanu who seems to be more annoyed by the fact the word game on his iPad will not accept "hindu" as an answer and then we have Casey Kastle who thinks the best way to pass the time is to simply, and literally, fall asleep. WAKE UP CASEY!
EPT Berlin winner Kevin MacPhee has taken a bit of a hit, but nevertheless remains one of our larger stacks right now.
We caught up with him betting out 6,625 from the small blind position on the turn of a board. He called the shove from his opponent on the button (for an amount that looked like roughly 12,000 in total) and then simply shrugged when he discovered that his was outkicked by his opponent's , doubling the gentleman up to 30,000 or so.
And shrug he might - even after that he's at an extremely healthy 80,000.