€10,300 High Roller
Day 1 Started
€10,300 High Roller
Day 1 Started
The European Poker Tour returns to Barcelona, one of poker's hotbeds in Europe, and PokerStars is hosting a festival for the 15th time at Casino Barcelona. If the opening day of the 13-day festival with 34 tournaments is any indication, it will be a busy two weeks as more than 800 players entered the satellite for the €1,100 EPT National and there was barely any empty spot in sight in the cash game area.
The opening €10,300 High Roller traditionally gathers a lot of regulars of the European and international circuit for the first big High Roller of the festival and the event is played as 8-max with single re-entry, big blind ante and 30-second shot clock from start to finish. Registration remains open until the cards get back in the air for Day 2 as of 12 p.m. local time on Wednesday, August 23rd, 2018, and all new entries can still take a shot with 25 big blinds by then. All participants receive six time banks and another three at the start of Day 2, once the final table is reached another three time banks will be awarded.
Back in 2017 and under the umbrella of the PokerStars Championship, it was Goran "mandza17" Mandic who defeated Francois Billard in heads-up to claim the lion's share of €1,610,200 prize pool in a field of 166 entries. Mandic, who is currently in first place of the all-time money list of his home country of Croatia, claimed a payday of €374,400 for his best score on the live circuit thus far. The final table also featured such big names as PokerStars team pro Liv Boeree, David Peters, Ivan Luca and Martin Jacobson.
Day 1 will kick off at 12 p.m. local time and feature a total of 10 levels of 60 minutes each. There will be a break of 20 minutes every two levels and a 75-minute dinner break after the completion of level eight. The PokerNews live reporting team will be there to provide all the action until the champion is crowned in this 3-day tournament.
Level: 1
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 100
The screens show 15 entries right from the start and among those to take a seat before the cards got in the air on time were such notables as Matthias Eibinger, Orpen Kisacikoglu, Ben Heath, Quan Zhou and the two Americans Kyle Keranen and James Romero.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Matthias Eibinger | 50,000 | |
Orpen Kisacikoglu | 50,000 | |
Ben Heath | 50,000 | |
Quan Zhou | 50,000 | |
Shakhabiddin Muradov | 50,000 | |
Enrico Coppola | 50,000 | |
Srikanth Koneru
|
50,000 | |
Kyle Keranen | 50,000 | |
James Romero | 50,000 |
After a raise by Arvin Vahdat and a three-bet by Matthias Eibinger on the button, Quan Zhou came along from the big blind and Vahdat also called to see a flop of . Action checked to Eibinger and he continued for 1,800. Zhou elected to check-raise to 4,500 and Vahdat folded, Eibinger called.
On the turn, Zhou continued for 5,500 and Eibinger called before the duo checked through the on the river. Zhou showed for aces and jacks, which Eibinger had beat with for aces and kings.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Matthias Eibinger | 61,000 | 11,000 |
Arvin Vahdat | 48,000 | 48,000 |
Quan Zhou | 39,000 | -11,000 |
Sirzat Hissou was followed shortly by poker's current power couple, Kristen Bicknell and Alex Foxen, who entered the competition at the same time and took a seat on separate tables.
Also in the field now: Luc and Sam Greenwood.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Sirzat Hissou | 50,000 | |
Jean Ferreira | 50,000 | |
Dmitrii Vasilev | 50,000 | |
Kristen Bicknell | 50,000 | |
Alex Foxen | 50,000 | |
Sam Greenwood | 50,000 | |
Luc Greenwood | 50,000 |
The action started with a raise to 600 by Kristen Bicknell on the button and Sam Greenwood in the small blind three-bet to 3,000. Bicknell made it 8,000 to go and Greenwood called to see a flop of . Both players checked and Greenwood bet the turn for 2,500, which ended the hand right there.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Sam Greenwood | 59,000 | 9,000 |
Kristen Bicknell | 42,000 | -8,000 |
The field has now grown to 28 entries in total with the addition of Dietrich Fast, Adrian Mateos, Daniel Dvoress and football star Gerard Pique. The latter has already participated in several PokerStars tournaments here at Casino Barcelona and a camera team from Spanish TV was following him and Mateos.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Gerard Piqué | 50,000 | |
Daniel Dvoress | 50,000 | |
Adrian Mateos
|
50,000 | |
Dietrich Fast | 50,000 |
In a battle of the blinds, Denys Shafikov limp-raised when facing a raise to 800 by Ben Heath and made it 3,200 to go. Heath called and the flop brought . Shafikov bet 2,500 and Heath quickly sent his cards into the muck.
Also seated on the same table now is Finland's Elias Talvitie, who entered the competition a few minutes ago.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Denys Shafikov | 56,000 | 56,000 |
Elias Talvitie | 50,000 | 50,000 |
Ben Heath | 48,000 | -2,000 |
Alex Foxen made it 600 to go and picked up two callers in Quan Zhou in the cutoff and Ben Heath in the big blind. On the flop, action checked to Foxen and his continuation bet of 1,300 was called by both opponents. The on the turn brought no betting action and Heath also checked the on the river. Foxen bet 4,800 and that was all it took to force two folds and rake in the pot without showdown.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Alex Foxen | 55,000 | 5,000 |
Ben Heath | 45,000 | -3,000 |
Quan Zhou | 36,000 | -3,000 |