Roberto Romanello just got off to a nice start here in Barcelona after flopping a full house, turning a higher full house, and getting value on the flop, turn, and river from his opponent Marco D'Amico from Italy.
D'Amico had raised from the hijack seat to 225, and Romanello called from the big blind to see the flop come down . After Romanello checked, D'Amico fired 300. Romanello check-raised to 700, and D'Amico made the call.
The turn was the , and Romanello led with a bet of 1,300. D'Amico took a few moments, then called. The river then completed the board with the . Romanello tossed out a big bet of 6,675, over-betting the 4,500-chip pot. After a minute or two in the tank, D'Amico called.
Romanello tabled the for a full house. He flopped eights full of jacks, but turned jacks full of eights to improve. D'Amico didn't show, and the pot was pushed over to Romanello.
Seth Berger bet 1,300 on the board, and his opponent made the call. The river was the , and Berger fired 3,100. His opponent folded, and Berger won the pot.
Ryan Spittles, a UK Online cash game Pro and a PokerStars qualifier in this event, opened the action for 250 and found one caller in Mikhail Petrov in the small blind, a professional player from Russia. The flop came . Petrov check called a bet of 300 from Spittles and they saw a turn card . Check call again, this time 750 and they went to the river. . Petrov checked for a final time but Spittles wasn’t slowing down, a bet of 2,000 was enough to convince the Russian to release his cards.
Gianluca Speranza from Italy was in a hand with Scott Seiver and had just bet 2,700 on a board of . Seiver called. The turn card was the . Speranza slowed down and checked as did Seiver. The river was the . Both players checked and Sperenza showed but was behind Seiver's . Sperenza questioned whether Seiver would have called if he had bombed the river, and was assured that he would have.
Steve O’Dwyer then stopped by Seiver’s table before the start of his super high roller final table and Seiver jumped up for a chat. They agreed that Dani Stern’s luck had been brutal and Seiver couldn’t believe the change in chip counts before his flight took off and on landing.
Here's another batch of late arrivals to the field that's already in play. Of note are a few Team PokerStars Pros including Jonathan Duhamel. His table is interesting because it contains Italian Filippo Candio. If you remember back to when Duhamel won the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2010 for $8,944,310, Candio took fourth for $3,092,545. The two will surely have some history given how deep that played in that event, and we'll be keeping an eye on them today to see if anything develops.
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.
Zeus Post had opened from early position and there was a three bet from the four seat. The big blind called and Post put out a four bet to 3,600. Only the big blind made the call and they saw a flop of . The big blind checked and Post continued for a smallish 1,600; he got his call. A turn card of a check from the big blind and a further bet of 2,100 from Post. The big blind went into the tank. For a long time. He counted out the call. He then stacked all his chips in a tower. A few variations of this and one player on the table had had enough and called time. “Who called time?” asked the player facing a decision who was told he was taking a ridiculous amount of time.
The floor was called and the countdown began. At ten seconds he was given a countdown second by second. The count reached zero and his cards were mucked.
On the paired board, Sam Chartier fired a bet of 3,100, and James Mitchell made the call. The dealer then placed the on the river, putting a fourth heart on board. After Chartier checked, Mitchell bet 7,300. Chartier took some time, then folded, and Mitchell won the pot.
With that pot, Mitchell picked up more chips and move to 60,000. Chartier was knocked back to right around the starting stack.
. After Romanello checked, D'Amico fired 300. Romanello check-raised to 700, and D'Amico made the call.
, and Romanello led with a bet of 1,300. D'Amico took a few moments, then called. The river then completed the board with the 
. Romanello tossed out a big bet of 6,675, over-betting the 4,500-chip pot. After a minute or two in the tank, D'Amico called.
for a full house. He flopped eights full of jacks, but turned jacks full of eights to improve. D'Amico didn't show, and the pot was pushed over to Romanello.
board, and his opponent made the call. The river was the 
, and Berger fired 3,100. His opponent folded, and Berger won the pot.![[user252447]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. Petrov check called a bet of 300 from Spittles and they saw a turn card 
. Check call again, this time 750 and they went to the river. 
. Speranza slowed down and checked as did Seiver. The river was the 
. Both players checked and Sperenza showed 
. The big blind checked and Post continued for a smallish 1,600; he got his call. A turn card of 
a check from the big blind and a further bet of 2,100 from Post. The big blind went into the tank. For a long time. He counted out the call. He then stacked all his chips in a tower. A few variations of this and one player on the table had had enough and called time. “Who called time?” asked the player facing a decision who was told he was taking a ridiculous amount of time.
board, Sam Chartier fired a bet of 3,100, and James Mitchell made the call. The dealer then placed the 
