O'Dwyer Leads Into Day 2
Welcome back to PokerNews' coverage of the 2012 PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Barcelona. Yesterday, Season 9 of arguably the greatest tour on the poker circuit kicked off with a bang as the €50,000 Super High Roller began.
Throughout the day, 54 different players entered the event. Of those, three busted and re-bought, bringing the total number of entries up to 57. With registration remaining open until the start of Day 2, it is expected that a few more players will add another €50,000 to the prize pool. Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu and Jonathan Duhamel have both said they would be back, and it's looking like Philipp Gruissem will be joining them.
Chris Moorman is also here in Barcelona and stated on Twitter, "Decided to late reg the $50k hi roller tomorrow. Hopefully go 1 better than my last hiroller finish of 2nd" so it looks like he'll be helping to increase numbers as well.
Once registration closes at noon, PokerNews will bring you the complete prize pool and payout information along with the total field size.
Finishing out Day 1 with the chip lead — and in a big way — was Steve O'Dwyer. He bagged up 1.249 million in chips, which proved to be more than 500,000 ahead of his closest competitor, Erik Seidel with 738,000. JC Alvarado also had a great day on the felt, building to 713,000.
O'Dwyer boasts a live career tournament record of nearly $2.7 million in earnings. Such deep pockets allowed him to fork over a second €50,000 buy-in as O'Dwyer busted early in the day and made the decision to rebuy. That decision proved to be a wise one as he ended the day with the chip lead. You can read the complete Day 1 recap here.
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 |
Outside of the top 10, notables Jason Mercier, Juha Helppi, Justin Bonomo, Peter Jetten, Andrew Lichtenberger and Scott Seiver are all still in contention. Igor Kurganov, winner of the PokerStars.com and Monte-Carlo® Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final €25,000 High Roller last season, finished the day as the shortest stack remaining with 59,000 in chips.
Due to registration remaining open until play begins at noon, the table draw is currently unavailable. It will be released at noon and posted then.
Play kicks off at 1200 CET (0600 EST) and you can find all the updates right here on PokerNews. Stay tuned for the action!
on a 
board. Unfortunately for her, JC Alvarado held 
and put an end to her tournament.
and Andrew Lichtenberger, who had 141,000, do the same with 
. Gruissem spiked his card to take the lead, though Litvinov was still out in front for the larger side pot. Neither the 
turn nor 
river changed a thing, and Gruissem tripled while Lichtenberger was felled by Litvinov.
flop put out some runner-runner options, but the 
flop did give his opponent a gut-shot straight draw. The 
spiked on the river to eliminate Duhamel for the third and final time.
.
and the board ran out with four spades of its own, giving him a flush and the massive pot. On the flip side, Ravnsbaek was eliminated in a gut-wrenching hand.
for Anatoly Gurtovoy.
. Mercier headed to the rail short of the final table and a cash here on Day 2.
flop was no help; in fact, it gave Alvarado the nut-flush draw, so a spade on the turn would end it. Sure enough, the 
peeled off and Liviu was up out of his seat, graciously shaking hands with his opponents, before taking his leave in 16th place.
flop was kind to O'Dwyer, so much so that Litvinov got up and prepared to leave. The dealer then burned and turned the 
