PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona Day 1B: Matt Woodward Surges
Day 1B of the PokerStars European Poker Tour in Barcelona saw an quickening of the pace as 270 more players came in search of the title. The field was impressively rich with talent, as numerous bracelet holders, high-stakes cash game players and former EPT winners all paid €8,300 for the privilege of battling it out on the felt for the next week here in Spain.
Lex Veldhuis began the day at lightening speed, attempting to finish the entire tournament in just a day. After half an hour, the Dutchman had turned his 30,000 starting stack into over 100,000, eliminating one player with the nut flush against a smaller flush in the process.
Sharing the same table with Veldhuis all day was a slightly disgruntled Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu, who had his wallet stolen just before the start of play. Apparently Negreanu was pick-pocketed by a "fan" who posed for a photo with the Canadian star.
"Miami" John Cernuto was another welcome sight here at the EPT Barcelona. Cernuto managed to make it through to the second day of play just a couple of months after heart troubles at the WSOP.
Elsewhere in the tournament, Constant Rijkenberg and Julian Thew, both former EPT winners, battled solidly for several hours before the Englishman, Thew, came away the victor. His success was short-lived, however, as Thew would later be eliminated himself, giving most of his chips to Robert Mizrachi, who flopped a set to crack Thew's aces.
Other players who failed to make the cut included the WSOP champions Carlos Mortensen and Peter Eastgate while sporting stars Fatima Moreira De Melo and Boris Becker were also unable to build themselves workable stacks.
Toward the end of the day, it was the EPT Monte Carlo runner-up, Matt Woodward, who finished as the chip leader, soaring to over 200,000 in chips. The man who beat him to the Grand Final title, Pieter De Korver, wasn't so lucky and ran 10-10 into K-K late in the day. Lex Veldhuis finished amongst the leaders with around 150,000, while Daniel Negreanu made up for his lost wallet, finishing with over 106,000.
Tomorrow we will restart once again at 12:30 p.m. local time (GMT+2) when the plan will be to play six levels of 75 minutes straight through without a dinner break.
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