Three tournament rooms are full to bursting in Barcelona today, the result of yet another record-breaking day on the Estrellas Poker Tour. One year on from a 1,700-player event, we're beyond 2,600 this time around, the largest freezeout in PokerStars event history. PokerStars Blog has more.
Andrew Pantling raised to 8,000 to start the action from the hijack seat. Noah Schwartz reraised from the cutoff seat to 19,000, and then action moved to Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst in the small blind. She reraised to 46,000.
Play moved back to Pantling, and he quickly made it 115,000 to go. Schwartz mulled it over before folding, and Selbst reraised all in for around 525,000. Pantling quickly gave it up, and Selbst raked in the pot.
John Juanda raised to 6,800 from the hijack seat, Juha Helppi called on the button, Stephen Chidwick called from the small blind, and Jason Les took a few seconds before folding from the big blind.
The flop came down , and Chidwick checked. Juanda bet 12,500, and Helppi put in a raise to 32,000. Chidwick and Juanda folded, and Helppi won the pot.
On the board, Stephen Chidwick bet 11,000 before John Juanda raised to 25,000. Chidwick called, and the completed the board on the river. After Chidwick checked, Juanda tossed out a bet of 75,000. Chidwick folded, and Juanda took the pot.
One of the tables used today is a little separated from the rest. It's a table that the rest of the week will be used to live stream the Estrellas Poker Tour. The Super High Roller is played there right now, though there's no streaming going on.
We just peeked in, and saw Tony Gregg check call a 64,000 bet on . Jean-Noel Thorel was caught with his hand in the cookie jar, as he had just a mere to show for. Gregg had and raked in the chips.
With 55 unique entries, and five reentries, the tournament is on its way of becoming the biggest EPT Barcelona Super High Roller ever. When Dan Smith won the inaugural event two years ago, 55 unique entries and nine reentries were made. Last season, Vitaly Lunkin topped a total field of 51 players, of which 11 reentered.
Five more entries or reentries, and today's event will be the biggest in Barcelona's short super high roller history. You can enter or reenter into this event up until the start of Day 2, which will be at 12 p.m. local time tomorrow.