Welcome To Day 2 of EPT Barcelona!
Hello and welcome to Day 2 of the 2010 EPT Barcelona, brought to you by PokerStars.com, where 399 players who survived the two official Day 1s will return to the Casino de Barcelona, each with a chance of walking away with a share of the gargantuan €3,790,000 prize pool!
A massive 495 players took part in yesterday's Day 1b and to put that into perspective for you, remember than only 428 players took part in the entire tournament last year!
Of the 399 hopefuls who return today, only 112 of them will be going home with prize money, which will range from €7,500 in the first few payout spots, to €70,000 for reaching the final table of eight and the aforementioned €825,000 for being crowned champion.
In the lead as we go into the day is Luis Rufas. The Spaniard came 41st here last year for €18,000, and will presumably be looking to improve on that result this time around. He's in possession of a commanding 232,100 right now.
It's not going to be an easy ride to Day 3, though. Also holding a lot of chips right now are Argentinian Team PokerStars Pro Leo Fernandez on 164,400, garrulous Welshman Roberto Romanello with 159,200 and Amsterdam Master Classics winner Kristoffer Thorsson on 120,900. Also still in, albeit with more modest stacks, are Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Carlos Mortensen, Johnny Lodden and Liv Boeree.
When play resumes at 1200 noon local time we expect a flurry of eliminations as some of the shorter stacks employ a "go big or go home" approach, so please bear with us as we bring you updates as quickly as we possibly can.
Tune back in at noon for the very best in live tournament coverage. Be there or be square as they say!
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