PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona Day 3: Georgios Kapalas Leads and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier Lurks
All of the players marching into Casino Barcelona for Day 3 of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona had already made it into the money. Out of the 72 remaining when the day began, Canadian Matt Lapossie was well out in front holding 700,300 chips, almost 100k more than his closest competitor.
Hot out of the gate was Roland de Wolfe who was off to the races with big slick against his opponent’s pocket nines in a hand early on. He was able to take the lead on the flop with an ace and finished the hand with two pair to double up.
A couple of hours later, controversy struck de Wolfe during a hand with Tobias Reinkemeier. De Wolfe bet the river holding just king high and was called by Reinkemeier. De Wolfe announced what he held, but wouldn’t show his hand. Reinkemeier wanted to see de Wolfe’s hand, but the 2006 PokerStars EPT Dublin champion showed only one king and then pushed his hand into the muck. Once de Wolfe’s hand hit the muck pile, Reinkemeier turned up queen high triumphantly. The floor was called and de Wolfe argued that his hand should be live. The tournament staff ruled in favor of Reinkemeier and awarded him the pot.
De Wolfe wasn’t the only previous PokerStars EPT champion in the field today. Jens Kyllonen, Noah Boeken, Jan Boubli, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Mike “Timex” McDonald also made it to the money. Boeken was crippled early on thanks to a three-outer and finished in 58th place. The other five are still in contention and looking to become the first to claim two PokerStars EPT titles.
Matt Lapossie was able to remain atop the leaderboard for most of the day despite having a few bluffs picked off rather late in the evening. Fortunately for Lapossie, he was on the better end of an aces-versus-queens confrontation by eliminating a player to regain the chip lead for the moment. Lapossie ended the day sitting in second place with 1.6 million in chips.
Samer Rahman built his way to a massive stack early but was eliminated on the last hand of the night. He made two pair on the river and moved all-in, but Georgios Kapalas had already turned the nut straight. That was the second massive pot of the day for Kapalas, allowing him to finish with over 1.7 million chips and the chip lead.
With two players eliminated simultaneously, 23 will return tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. local time (GMT+2) and play will conclude once the final table is set.
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