2014 PokerStars.com EPT Season 11 Barcelona

€50,000 Super High Roller
Day: 1
Event Info

2014 PokerStars.com EPT Season 11 Barcelona

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
qj
Prize
€896,434
Event Info
Buy-in
€48,500
Prize Pool
€3,697,155
Entries
77
Level Info
Level
23
Blinds
100,000 / 200,000
Ante
30,000

Ryan Fee Leads After a Record-Breaking Day 1

Level 8 : 2,500/5,000, 500 ante
Fee bags the Day 1 chip lead
Fee bags the Day 1 chip lead

Day 1 of the €50,000 Super High Roller from European Poker Tour Barcelona has come to a close. This event marked a spectacular start to the 100th EPT event ever held, and an elite record-breaking field of competitors were in the mix.

The biggest story of the day was that of the size of the field. At the completion of play, things had grown to 56 unique entries with 15 reentries. That meant a total of 71 entries and the largest €50,000 Super High Roller in Barcelona history. What's more is that players still have the option to enter and reenter up until the start of play on Day 2, which will be on Tuesday at 12 p.m. local time. If you just happen to have an extra €50,000 lying around, Casino Barcelona is where the action will be.

Following the completion of the first eight levels of play — of which players began with 250,000 in chips — Ryan Fee finished on top of the leaderboard with 919,000 in his stack.

RankPlayerChips
1Ryan Fee919,000
2Sam Trickett725,000
3Ole Schemion665,000
4Martin Jacobson620,000
5Bryn Kenney605,000
6Andrew Pantling605,000
7Jean-Noel Thorel540,000
8Scott Seiver538,000
9Dan Shak528,000
10Daniel Colman473,000

Fee scored two big eliminations to highlight his day. First, he busted Dong Kim with ace-king versus tens by hitting a king on the flop. Then right at the end of the day, Fee sent Mike McDonald packing. It was McDonald's second time busting the event, but he will still be able to reenter once more before Day 2 begins.

Among the faces in the field for Day 1 were Dan Smith and Vitaly Lunkin, both former champions of this event. Smith won the inaugural €50,000 Super High Roller in Barcelona, an event that took place in Season 9. Lunkin is the defending champion of the event after having topped the field in Season 10. Both players survived the first starting day and will be back in action on Day 2 in their continued quest for a second title.

Also moving on to Day 2 was Erik Seidel. What's interesting about Seidel is that he made the final table in both Season 9 and Season 10 in this event, meaning an appearance this year would earn him three in a row. McDonald also achieved this feat, but it will left to be determined as to whether or not he will enter for a third time and chase a third final table.

Then there were 2014 WSOP November Niners Jorryt van Hoof and Martin Jacobson. Van Hoof is the chip leader of the WSOP Main Event and started at the same table as his fellow November Niner. The two got in some early practice hands against one another, but Jacobson was moved a couple hours into the day, so any more playing experience will have to wait until later on.

Other notables advancing to Day 2 were Team PokerStars Pros Jason Mercier, Vanessa Selbst, and Daniel Negreanu. Negreanu has fired two bullets in the event, but he's got more than enough big buy-in experience to justify his reentry actions.

All of the remaining players will be back on Tuesday at 12 p.m. local time for Day 2, and anyone who has busted can still reenter up until that point. New players may also buy in up until the start time, and word on the street is that there could be a few brand new competitors to start the day.

For now, that's the end of PokerNews' coverage from Barcelona, but be sure to tune back in for Day 2. Until then, enjoy a fun twist to the welcome video done by Remko Rinkema: