PokerStars EPT Barcelona Super High Roller Day 1: Ryan Fee Leads Record-Setting Field
Day 1 of the €50,000 Super High Roller from the European Poker Tour Barcelona has come to a close. This event marked a spectacular start to the 100th EPT event in history, 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 16 reentries. That meant a total of 72 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.
Advancing to Day 2 from Day 1 were 49 players.
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.
| Rank | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ryan Fee | 919,000 |
| 2 | Sam Trickett | 725,000 |
| 3 | Ole Schemion | 665,000 |
| 4 | Martin Jacobson | 620,000 |
| 5 | Bryn Kenney | 605,000 |
| 6 | Andrew Pantling | 605,000 |
| 7 | Jean-Noel Thorel | 540,000 |
| 8 | Scott Seiver | 538,000 |
| 9 | Dan Shak | 528,000 |
| 10 | Daniel Colman | 473,000 |
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 if he so chooses.
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 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. Smith advanced with 300,000, while Lunkin was slightly better on 356,000.
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. He finished Day 1 with 271,000 in chips. The aforementioned 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 World Series of Poker 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. Of those three, Selbst bagged the most chips with 378,000. Mercier finished not too far behind her with 362,000, and Negreanu bagged 315,000.
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:
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