€5,300 Main Event Day 1a | 2013 PokerStars.com EPT Barcelona

09-01-2013 11:53 UTC+3

The First Main Event of Season 10 On the EPT

donpeters

Welcome to the first Main Event of Season 10 on the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour. The PokerNews live reporting team is here in Barcelona to bring you all the action from the felt for what plans to be a very, very massive event. Barcelona has been a stop on the EPT every season since the tour's inception, getting better and better every year.

Last year, Mikalai Pobal defeated a field of 1,082 entries to earn €1,007,550. That's both a massive number of entries and amount for first place, but the stars seem to be aligning for an even bigger event this time around. All of the events here at the Barcelona festival have been huge, with jam-packed tournament rooms and mile-long registration lines. One can only expect much more today for Day 1a of the €5,300 Main Event.

There will be plenty of big names in the mix, including Team PokerStars Pros, online qualifiers, and other top international players. The cards will be in the air at 12 p.m. local time, so prepare yourself for a great day of action from the felt. PokerNews will have all your live updates right here, so saddle up and enjoy the show.

You can also check out PokerNews' coverage of the €50,000 Super High Roller event. The field was down to eight players after Day 2 with over €770,000 to the winner. WIth only seven spots paying, a very big bubble will be in effect right from the get go.

09-01-2013 15:05 UTC+3

Where Are They Now: Season 9 EPT Barcelona Champ Mikalai Pobal

donpeters

Level 2 : 75/150, 0 ante

Season 9 EPT Barcelona champ Mikalai Pobal

Last season's European Poker Tour Barcelona champion, Mikalai Pobal, is in the field today for Day 1a and looking to defend his title. Recently, PokerNews' Chad Holloway took a look at the reigning EPT Barcelona champion in a Where Are They Now piece.

It’s a little early to ask just where the defending champ is now considering it’s only been a year since his win. Mikalai Pobal, who hailed from Belarus where he studied International Economic Relations at Belarus State Economic University and played on PokerStars under the name “leanod,” had to overcome a stacked final table on his way to winning the Season 9 EPT, which drew 1,082 entries and created a prize pool of €5,247,700.

Last year’s final table included John Juanda (8th - €76,100), Anaras Alekberovas (4th - €301,750), Joni Jouhkimainen (3rd - €404,050) and Ilari “Ilari FIN” Sahamies (2nd - €629,700), so you can see that saying it was “stacked” wasn’t an understatement. We won’t go into detail on how Pobal finished the job, but we’ll just say alcohol and shiny hats were involved during three-handed play. You can read about that in last year’s live blog.

Prior to his win, Pobal’s only cash was 104th in the 2012 EPT Berlin Main Event for €7,500, while his only one since the win was 10th in the 2012 EPT Sanremo €10,000 No-Limit Hold’em 8-Max for €20,600.

Tags: Mikalai Pobal

09-01-2013 17:32 UTC+3

Bendik Headlines EPT Season 9 Award Winners

Chad Holloway

Level 3 : 100/200, 0 ante

Picture courtesy of the PokerStars Blog.

As play begins on Day 1A and nearly everyone who started the day still has chips, all remain upbeat as everyone continues to harbor hopes of lasting the week to become the next EPT Main Event champion. The mood seems extra festive as well either thanks to or despite hangover — depending on whether we're speaking literally or figuratively — from last night's welcome party at the popular Opium club here in Barcelona.

Read all about it in Martin Harris' piece on the PokerStars Blog.

Tags: PokerStars Blog

09-01-2013 20:58 UTC+3

Where Are They Now: Season 1 EPT Barcelona Champ Alexander Stevic

Chad Holloway

Level 6 : 200/400, 50 ante

Season 1 EPT Barcelona Champ Alexander Stevic.

Way back in 2004, the EPT was in an infancy, which was evidenced by the €1,000 Main Event in Barcelona, which attracted 229 entries and created a prize pool of €229,000. The inaugural final table of the EPT Barcelona included John Kabbaj, Stefan Rapp and Luca Pagano, all of who have established themselves as quality players in the poker world. With that said, the man who emerged victorious that season was Sweden’s Alexander Stevic, who took home €80,000 for the win.

Stevic also made the final table of the Season 1 €10,000 EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, where he navigated a field of 211 players to finish third for €178,000. Stevic looked as if he could become on a star born out of the EPT’s early days, but then things slowed considerably over the next eight years.

He earned a modest $12,660 in tournament winnings in 2006 and then disappeared from the poker landscape the two years after that. His next cash came in 2009 when he took third in the Campeonato Espana De Poker €600 No Limit Hold’em for €18,750, before he was shut out again in 2010. In 2011 and 2012, Stevic put in a little more volume and managed to cash for $32,693 and $30,074 respectively, but then essentially disappeared from the poker landscape – though, as you can see, he is doing quite well here today!

EPT Barcelona Season 1 Final Table

Buy-in	Entrants	Prize Pool	Number of Payouts	Date
€1,000	229	€229,000	27	September 18, 2004

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Alexander Stevic	Sweden	€80,000
2nd	David O’Callaghan	Ireland	€41,000
3rd	Luca Pagano	Italy	€20,000
4th	Adam Robak	Poland	€12,600
5th	Garry Bush	Great Britain	€8,500
6th	Stefan Rapp	Austria	€7,500
7th	John Kabbaj	Great Britain	€6,400
8th	Andreas Pournaras	Greece	€5,300

Tags: Alexander Stevic

09-02-2013 01:07 UTC+3

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

Chad Holloway

Level 8 : 300/600, 75 ante

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

09-02-2013 02:00 UTC+3

EPT Barcelona Main Event Day 1a Recap

donpeters

Level 8 : 300/600, 75 ante

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 on a board of . 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 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 into the 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.