2013 PokerStars.com EPT Barcelona

€5,300 Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info

2013 PokerStars.com EPT Barcelona

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
55
Prize
€942,000
Event Info
Buy-in
€5,000
Prize Pool
€5,984,900
Entries
1,230
Level Info
Level
36
Blinds
200,000 / 400,000
Ante
50,000

€5,300 Main Event

Day 1a Completed

EPT Barcelona Main Event Day 1a Recap

Level 8 : 300/600, 75 ante
Dragan Kostic
Dragan Kostic

Season 10 of the PokerSars.com European Poker Tour continued on Sunday with the EPT Barcelona €5,300 Main Event at the Casino Barcelona. Barcelona has been a permanent fixture on the EPT, and it proved to be as popular as ever, attracting an impressive 518 entrants for Day 1a alone.

Some of the big stacks at the end of eight levels play today were chip leader Dragan Kostic on 215,000, Niclas Adoltsson on 147,000, Jacob Rasmussen on 128,300, and Albert Daher on 127,700. Other notables to return for Day 2 are defending champion Mikalai Pobal on 70,300, Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst on 75,800, and Dani Stern, who was desperately unlucky in the €50,000 Super High Roller last night, with 65,500.

Team PokerStars Pros turned up en masse with appearances from the likes of Jason Mercier, Leo Magrets, Jonathan Duhamel, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Marcel Luske, and Jan Heitmann. Other well-known players for Day 1a included Scott Seiver, David Vamplew, and Andrew Lichtenberger.

Not everyone can last the full six days of course, but we’re sure that Alessandro Ielli, an Italian PokerStars qualifier, hoped to last a bit longer than thirty minutes. He fell into a trap, though, shoving on the river into the nut flush of Abdulaziz Abdulaziz from Canada. Abdulaziz held the {a-Hearts}{q-Hearts} on a board of {j-Spades}{7-Clubs}{10-Hearts}{4-Hearts}{9-Hearts}. Ielli was left reeling and out after less half an hour of play.

Swedish player Alexander Stevic won the very first EPT 10 years ago right here in Barcelona, and returned today to see if he still had the magic. He didn’t do too bad at all, finishing the day on 103,900 in chips.

Another former winner of this event, Season 8 champion Martin Schleich, was eliminated about halfway through the event when his {K-Spades}{J-Spades} couldn't overcome his opponent's pocket tens.

Grospellier wasn’t having a great day either, his rubber duck not bringing him much good fortune, and he ultimately failed to make Day 2.

There was a fairly frantic last two levels of the day as short stacks looked to double up or go home, or big hands clashed with inevitable preflop all ins. Selbst, for one, ran her {j-Hearts}{j-Spades} into the {a-Spades}{a-Diamonds} of PokerStars online qualifier Johannes Korsar near the end of play, and was none too pleased to lose some 29,000 hard-earned chips. Nevertheless, she advanced with 75,800 in her stack.

The action continues on Monday with Day 1b and a whole new set of players hoping to be crowned EPT Barcelona champion and take away over €1,000,000 for the win. The field is expected to be even larger than today, so be sure to check right back in with PokerNews for all the live updates from that start time of 12 p.m. local time.

End-of-the-Day Chip Counts (full)

Level 8 : 300/600, 75 ante
Player Chips Progress
Dragan Kostic
Dragan Kostic
215,000 -25,000
Niclas Adolfsson
Niclas Adolfsson
147,400 -10,600
Rodrigo Sirichuk
Rodrigo Sirichuk
130,100
Nils Jarefjall se
Nils Jarefjall
129,900
Jacob Reffeldt Rasmussen
Jacob Reffeldt Rasmussen
128,300
Albert Daher lb
Albert Daher
127,700 22,700
Carlo Mora
Carlo Mora
125,200 -33,800
Martin Diaz ar
Martin Diaz
120,800 -200
Miguel Gurrea Monton es
Miguel Gurrea Monton
120,000
Rens Feenstra nl
Rens Feenstra
117,600 1,600
Santiago Soriano es
Santiago Soriano
117,400 10,400
Christopher Andler se
Christopher Andler
115,700
Bryn Kenney us
Bryn Kenney
115,000 60,000
Alejandro Belluccia
Alejandro Belluccia
114,100
Thomas Brauner
Thomas Brauner
114,000
Mihails Morozovs lv
Mihails Morozovs
111,000
Denis Gindash
Denis Gindash
110,300 -11,700
Joao Brito
Joao Brito
109,300
David Stimper
David Stimper
108,100
Luca Fiorini
Luca Fiorini
106,600
Robert Gordon Reints
Robert Gordon Reints
105,600
Rory Tinlin
Rory Tinlin
105,000 -15,000
Alexander Stevic
Alexander Stevic
103,900 -11,100
Jack Salter gb
Jack Salter
103,100
Max Ruess
Max Ruess
103,100

Read full

Three More!

Level 8 : 300/600, 75 ante

Tournament staff has announced three more hands at each table before bagging and tagging for the evening.

Nice One for Hakim

Level 8 : 300/600, 75 ante

From the cutoff seat, one of the bigger stacks, Niclas Adolfsson, raised to 1,200. Jeff Hakim called on the button, and Jose Gonzales called from the big blind. The three players saw the flop come down {10-Clubs}{8-Spades}{5-Diamonds}, and Gonzales checked. Adolfsson fired 1,925, and Hakim called. Gonzales also called.

The {K-Clubs} came out on the turn, and Gonzales checked. Adolfsson didn't slow down and fired 5,900. Hakim and Gonzales both called.

The river was the {2-Clubs}, and both Gonzales and Adolfsson checked to Hakim. Hakim fired 22,000, and both of his opponents folded.

Player Chips Progress
Niclas Adolfsson
Niclas Adolfsson
158,000 14,000
Jeff Hakim lb
Jeff Hakim
62,000 1,000
Jose Gonzales ar
Jose Gonzales
45,000

Tags: Niclas AdolfssonJeff HakimJose Gonzales

Lunkin Beats Seidel To Super High Roller Title, Wins €771,300

Level 8 : 300/600, 75 ante
Vitaly Lunkin holds his trophy aloft
Vitaly Lunkin holds his trophy aloft

In case you missed it, Russian Vitaly Lunkin tonight beat poker legend Erik Seidel heads up in the opening event of Season 10 of the European Poker Tour, the €50,000 Super High Roller. Timothy Adams burst the bubble in 8th leaving Fabian Quoss to tick over the EPT 'payometer' past €500,000,000 in payout. Ole Schemion, David Benefield, Mike McDonald and Steve O'Dwyere all made the money. Read about it all at the PokerStars Blog by clicking here.

Tags: PokerStars Blog

Heseding Hangs Champman Out to Dry

Level 8 : 300/600, 75 ante

We're not sure of the preflop action, but we do know Brent Chapman got his last 8,200 all in preflop holding the {a-Diamonds}{10-Hearts} and was racing against the {5-Diamonds}{5-Spades} of Hauke Heseding.

According to the PokerNews Odds Calculator, Chapman had a 46.31% chance of surviving the hand while Heseding was a slight favorite at 53.24%. The {q-Diamonds}{3-Clubs}{7-Hearts} flop provided to help to Chapman, and his chances dropped to 26.46% while Heseding's jumped to 73.54%. The {9-Clubs} turn left Chapman, who dropped even further to 13.64%, in need of either an ace or ten on the river to stay alive, but it wasn't in the cards as the {Q-Clubs} blanked.

With that, Chapman made a late-night exit while Heseding collected the small pot.

Player Chips Progress
Brent Chapman
Brent Chapman
Busted

Tags: Brent ChapmanHauke Heseding

Malm Doubles

Level 8 : 300/600, 75 ante

We arrived at the table just in time to see recent World Series of Poker bracelet winner Michael Malm move all in for his last 16,025 on a board of {J-Spades}{5-Diamonds}{Q-Hearts}{j-Hearts}{10-Spades}. With well over 10,000 already in the pot, Malm's opponent, Heikki Piira, pondered a decision.

Roughly 45 seconds passed before Piira finally came to a decision, tossing out enough chips to call and quickly tabling {A-Spades}{A-Clubs}. Malm rolled over {J-Clubs}{10-Hearts} for a winning full house of jacks full of tens and was able to scoop up a double up late in the day. Malm now sits around 45,000 in chips.

Player Chips Progress
Michael Malm ca
Michael Malm
45,000 15,000

Tags: Michael Malm

How to Three-Bet Selbst

Level 8 : 300/600, 75 ante
Vanessa Selbst
Vanessa Selbst

Vanessa Selbst opened for 13,000 under the gun and was raised to 30,000 by Swedish PokerStars online qualifier Johannes Korsar. His temerity was met by a four bet from Selbst to 7,200. Selbst shook her head as Korsar five bet shoved for 29,300 but made the call anyway. What else could he have but the {a-Spades}{a-Diamonds} of course? Selbst turned over her {j-Hearts}{j-Spades} with a look of resignation. No help on the board of {9-Spades}{2-Hearts}{4-Diamonds}{q-Diamonds}{10-Diamonds} and her stack was dented while Korsar was quietly happy to double up.

Quixotes by the Hundreds

Level 8 : 300/600, 75 ante
Table & Chips
Table & Chips

More than 500 have come out for today's Day 1a, with more than that expected tomorrow. Each individual player's chance to emerge victorious is slim, but each is nonetheless determined to imagine him or herself as a champion. Not unlike Spain's most famous literary hero, Don Quixote, they're all more than willing to dream the impossible dream. Read more at the PokerStars Blog.

Tags: PokerStars Blog