PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Madrid Day 1b: Navarrete Takes Overall Chip Lead
If Monday was the matinee, Tuesday was definitely the main show for the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Madrid. The 352 Day 1b entrants sat down with 30,000 chips apiece, dwarfing the 125 players who took a shot at glory on Day 1a. There were so many more players than expected that an overspill room was put in use and dealers scheduled for the late shift were hurried in early so that no one was turned away. The total field ballooned to 477, creating a prize pool of €2,313,450, with €545,000 going to first place.
Of the 197 players who moved on to Day 2, the player who made best use of the eight levels, best use of the cards that came to him, and best use of the talents he was gifted or learned was Juan Navarrete. He bagged up 173,200 chips to make him the overall chip leader coming back for Day 2 — representing the home nation very well indeed.
He took down a monster pot worth around 150,000 chips very late in the day to nearly bust the almost impenetrable (on recent form) Steve O’Dwyer. The latter was left with 2,000 after his queens failed to come from behind to beat Navarrete’s pocket kings.
Navarrete will be closely followed by Ilan Boujenah (171,000) and David Benyamine (154,500), who both finished ahead of Sergiy Baranov (152,500) — the Day 1a chip leader. Just behind them, Team PokerStars Pro Angel Guillen (151,800) and Nicolas Levi (150,300).
Boujenah has a couple of six-figure results on his rap sheet, the best being his fourth-place finish at the Partouche Poker Tour final for €300,000. He had a six-figure stack on Day 1b before he was noticed emerging from the pack. From there, he claimed a 60,000 pot when his ace-jack overcame Imed Ben Mahmoud’s ace-queen.
Team PokerStars Pro was out in force on Day 1b. Besides Guillen, Nacho Barbero (93,600), Johnny Lodden (86,000), Mikhail Shalamov (51,200), Fatima Moreira de Melo (16,600), and Juan Manuel Pastor (14,900) were all in attendance and will all be back to represent the badge on Wednesday.
There were many who won’t be back though. Victor Ramdin ran kings into aces early on. The only current EPT champion, Mickey Petersen, fell, as did Richard Toth and Eugene Katchalov. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Theo Jorgensen, Leo Fernandez, and Ana Marquez all waited until the last level before losing their allowance of chips.
Other notables who came, saw, but failed to conquer included: Mick Graydon, Ruben Visser, Jamie Rosen, Ivan Freitez, Andrey Pateychuk, Jason Koon, and Eli Elezra.
EPT Madrid Top 10 Chip Counts
| Player | Chips |
|---|---|
| Juan Navarrete | 173,200 |
| Ilan Boujenah | 171,000 |
| Yann Dion | 155,000 |
| David Benyamine | 154,500 |
| Angel Guillen | 151,800 |
| Nicolas Levi | 150,300 |
| Raul Mestre | 138,000 |
| Faraz Jaka | 110,000 |
| Javier Rojas Mederos | 108,000 |
| Ivan Tikhov | 105,000 |
The remaining 283 players from both starting flights will come together Wednesday for another day of action. Play, will again, start at 1200 CET (0400 PST). Join the PokerNews Live Reporting Team once more for all the updates from EPT Madrid.
Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
