The European Poker Tour is back with Season 9 of the tour. The first stop is right here in beautiful Barcelona, Spain and things are kicking off with a bang as the €50,000 Super High Roller is just moments away.
Casino Barcelona plays host to this massive event, which will be the largest poker tournament ever held in Spain. Nearly 50 players are already confirmed to be registered and it's truly going to be a stacked field of participants.
According to the EPT, those set to play include Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Jonathan Duhamel, Eugene Katchalov and Jason Mercier. Others joining them on the felt will be Sam Chartier, Tobias Reinkemeier, Scott Seiver, Erik Seidel, Mike McDonald, Kyle Julius, Dan Shak, Steve O’Dwyer, Peter Jetten, Alec Torelli and Philipp Gruissem.
There's also rumor that the one and only Phil Ivey will be in the mix for this event, which is something no one will want to miss.
This elite, three-day event kicks off today at noon and all players will begin 250,000 in chips. The blinds kick off at 500/1,000/100 with all levels lasting an hour in length. PokerNews will be on hand from the get go bringing you all the updates, photos and videos you can handle, so be sure to stay tuned for the action!
We're not sure of the preflop action, but we do know that Vadzim Kursevich ended up all in for 112,000 with and was in dire straits against the of Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier.
The flop gave Kursevich a gut-shot straight draw, meaning he was looking for either a five or seven to take the lead. Wouldn't you know it, the spiked on the turn to give him a guaranteed double. Mercier knew he was drawing dead and took to Twitter even before the meaningless was put out on the river.
JasonMercier Jason MercierFinally played a pot. AKo loses to A7o for 60 bb pot... Have 145k instead of 380 at 2/4k Yet another #justbadluck handAugust 17 2012
Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier is known for using the Twitter hastag "#justbadluck" or "#jbl" when he tweets. This time around, Mercier was on the end of some good luck when he tripled up by catching a flush on the river. Here's what happened.
From under the gun, Mercier raised to 8,000 and [Removed:283] called from the next seat. Mike Watson called out of the cutoff position, Jonathan Duhamel called from the small blind and Philipp Gruissem called from the big blind. From there, all five players saw the flop come down and action checked around to Watson.
With 43,500 in the middle, Watson bet 20,000 and that folded out Duhamel. Gruissem called and then Mercier check-raised all in for 135,000. [Removed:288] requested a count, received it and then made the call. Watson folded.
Gruissem took some time to himself to think. Eventually, he made the call and gave Mercier the chance to triple his stack if he were to win the hand.
The turn was the and Gruissem checked. [Removed:288] moved all in, putting Gruissem to the test. After he moved all in, [Removed:288] stood up from the table and began to walk over to his rail. He was instructed back to the table because there was still pending action with Gruissem in the hand. On his way back to the table, [Removed:288]'s phone rang and he answered it, quickly saying something in another language to the person on the other end before abruptly hanging up. He then sat back in his seat and waited for Gruissem to act. After a minute or so, Gruissem folded and [Removed:288] was left to do battle with Mercier.
Both players tabled the same hand; Mercier held the and [Removed:288] held the . Mercier did have a flush draw to go along with his hand for some added insurance. Mercier would be the first to tell you, he was "freerolling" [Removed:288].
The river landed with the and Mercier had made his heart flush to win the pot. [Removed:288] didn't see the flush and tried to argue when the dealer began pushing Mercier the pot. The dealer showed [Removed:288] the flush, which upset the 2010 EPT Vilamoura High Roller winner. Mercier collected the chips and moved to nearly 450,000.
Season 9 of the European Poker Tour kicked off on Friday with Day 1 of the 2012 PokerStars.com EPT Barcelona €50,000 Super High Roller. The tournament attracted 54 players including an eclectic mix of Europeans, North Americans and online pros. After eight levels of play, Steve O’Dwyer was best positioned to make a run at the title with a massive chip stack of 1.249 million, almost twice as much as his next closest competitor.
It was a polarizing day for O’Dwyer, who busted early and became the first player to rebuy. It proved a wise decision as things went much smoother the second time around.
His choice to rebuy seems like a similar situation that's beginning to occur as to when O'Dwyer's good friend Justin Bonomo had to reload in the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino European Poker Tour Super High Roller. In case you don't know, Bonomo's reload was the wise decision as he went on to win the event and €1.64 million.
O’Dwyer’s Twitter tells the tale,
steveodwyer steveodwyersigh, busted my first bullet in the EPT €50k early level 3 vs philbort with my TT<his J6hh all in on QT6hhx. rebuy!August 17 2012
steveodwyer steveodwyergot busto soon's last 100k chips with A5cc>KQcc on 743ccx, up to 350k on my 2nd bullet.August 17 2012
Another man who thrived on Day 1 was Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel. Early on action folded to Seidel in the hijack and he raised. John Juanda flatted from the cutoff, and Kyle Julius, who finished runner-up in the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event, three-bet to 14,200 in the big blind. Seidel responded with a four-bet to 34,000, Julius five-bet to 62,800, and then Seidel six-bet 100,000. Julius wasted little time in seven-betting all in for around 190,000, and Seidel made the call.
Showdown
Julius
Seidel
Julius was in a rough spot and in need of some help, most notably an ace. The flop didn't contain an ace, but it did give Julius Broadway outs to a Broadway straight. The turn wasn't what he was looking for, and neither was the river. After the stacks were verified, Julius made a hasty exit from the tournament floor. Seidel used that momentum to finish second in chips at the end of Day 1 with 738,000.
Some Day 1 eliminations such as Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Jonathan Duhamel and Philipp Gruissem are expected to give it another go on Day 2 (Duhamel already used one rebuy and busted a second time). Other players who fell were Dani Stern, Alec Torelli, Sorel Mizzi, Bryn Kenney, Marc-Andre Ladouceur, Michael Tureniec, Jani Sointula, Johan Van Til, Dan Shak, Juan Luis Casanas, Salman Behbehani, Ilya Bulychev and Luke Schwartz.
Of those who managed to ride their initial buy-in to the end of the night were Team PokerStars Pros Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Eugene Katchalov and Jason Mercier. The sole woman in the field, Cheung Yin Sun, 2010 €10,000 EPT Vilamoura High Roller champ [Removed:283], online sensations Ilari Sahamies, Sami Kelopuro, Mike McDonald and Terje Augdal along with consummate pros Sam Chartier, Scott Seiver, Andrew Lichtenberger, Peter Jetten, Justin Bonomo, Timothy Adams and Andy Moseley all advanced through as well.
Here’s a look at the top 10 chip counts at the end of Day 1:
Top 10 Chip Counts
Place
Player
Count
1st
Steve O’Dwyer
1,249,000
2nd
Erik Seidel
738,000
3rd
JC Alvarado
713,000
4th
Ignat “0Human0” Liviu
656,000
5th
Simon Ravnsbaek
640,000
6th
Mike Watson
639,000
7th
John Juanda
638,500
8th
Dan Smith
585,000
9th
Steven Silverman
580,000
10th
Tobias Reinkemeier
565,000
Day 2 is set to kick off at 1200 CET (0600 EST), which is when the official number of entrants and the prize pool will be determined. Join us then as the PokerNews Live Reporting Team brings you all the hands and eliminations from the PokerStars.com EPT Barcelona €50,000 Super High Roller.
While you wait for tomorrow's action, check out some tips our very own Kristy Arnett has for you from beautiful Barcelona.