2013 World Poker Tour Barcelona Day 2: Alekberovas Ahead of the Rest
Day 2 of the World Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event concluded on Sunday, and leading the 42 remaining players was Lithuanian Anaras Alekberovas. Lukas Berglund, who won WPT Barcelona in Season X, finished the day fifth in chips, and several other notables will return for Day 3, including Kevin Vandersmissen, Manuel Bevand, Bryn Kenney, Ognjen Sekularac, Steve O’Dwyer and David Boyaciyan.
Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Name | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anaras Alekberovas | 467,000 |
| 2 | Tahiri Hassani | 434,500 |
| 3 | Antonio Alfaia | 430,500 |
| 4 | Alvaro Ballesteros | 351,500 |
| 5 | Lukas Berglund | 347,000 |
| 6 | Henri Benoni | 318,000 |
| 7 | Atanas Gueorguiev | 255,500 |
| 8 | Jari Mahonen | 227,500 |
| 9 | Kevin Vandersmissen | 226,500 |
| 10 | Carmelo Placenti | 217,500 |
En route to earning the chip lead, Alekberovas five-bet jammed all in with pocket threes and was snap-called by Yigit Aktulga. Aktulga was in good shape to win the 400,000-chip pot and soar to the chip lead, but a trey on the flop gave Alekberovas a set of threes. The turn was a brick, and the case three completed the board for kicks and grins, giving Alekberovas quad threes and 540,000 chips. He lost a few pots during the latter stages of the evening, and bagged 467,000.
Day 2 began with 148 players, and there was a flurry of eliminations, including Faraz Jaka, Daniel Cates, Jeff Tims, Ilan Boujenah and Adam “Roothlus” Levy. Levy held aces on a board of 4x7xQx10x with two clubs, but his opponent held 7♥4♥ for two pair. The river was a brick, and Levy was eliminated.
WPT Player of the Year leader Matt Salsberg, Jean-Philippe Rohr and Kevin MacPhee all exited in Levels 9 and 10. MacPhee was eliminated in a three-way all-in pot where he held the A♥Q♥, Antonio Alfaia held AxKx and Calvin Anderson had pocket sixes. There was an ace on the flop, but MacPhee was out-kicked and sent to the rail.
Overnight chip leader Sergio Fernandez dropped a big pot to Sekularac in Level 11. With the blinds at 600/1,200/200, Raul Paez opened to 2,400 on the button, Sekularac three-bet to 5,600 in the small blind, and Fernandez cold four-bet to 12,700 in the big blind. Only Sekularac called. The flop fell Q♣Q♥7♥, Sekularac checked, and Fernandez continued for 13,600. Sekularac check-raised to 27,500, Fernandez reraised to 45,600, and Sekularac moved all in. Fernandez instantly folded, leaving himself with 120,000 chips, while Sekularac shot up to 270,000.
Fernandez, a local player, ended the night with just 66,000 chips, which will be roughly 22 big blinds at the start of Day 3.
Fellow Spanish heroes Leo Margets and Ana Marquez were eliminated in Level 12. Margets lost a very large flip with ace-king against Paez’s pocket queens, and then was done in with king-queen against an opponent’s ace-queen. Marquez busted with king-queen on a queen-high board with two jacks. Alekberovas held ace-jack.
O’Dwyer found a double up in the last level of play. He won a race with ace-king against Johnny Hansen’s pocket eights — flopping an ace — giving him over 150,000 chips.
The remaining 42 players will return on Monday at 14:00 CET for Day 3. Stay tuned to PokerNews for a recap of the action once play has been completed.
Data and photo courtesy of WorldPokerTour.com.
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