EPT Barcelona Kicks Off With Big Fields in EPT National
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The European Poker Tour is back in Barcelona! The first day of the €1,100 EPT National, the biggest mid-stakes poker event of the year in Europe, already bringing in 1,846 entrants after two of the four starting days. Two more starting flights will follow on Thursday, while the eventual champion will be crowned on Sunday, August 25.
€1,100 EPT National Barcelona Day 1a
The first flight of the €1,100 EPT National of the 2019 PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona has wrapped up with 15:10 seconds remaining at Level 17. This first flight attracted a massive field of 1,240 poker enthusiasts but only 185 of them were able to find a bag at the end of the night.
Leading the Day 1a pack is Dejan Jakovljevic from The Netherlands, with an impressive stack of 915,000 . Other top stacks include Alen Alencar (830,000), Diego Falcone (676,000), Jai Saha (596,000), Alexis Urli (558,000), Junzhong Loo (554,000), and Raffaele Sorrentino (517,000).
Sorrentino has over $2,139,000 in total live earnings on his poker resume. He has won multiple tournaments including the €5,300 Main Event of the 2017 PokerStars Championship Monte-Carlo. He also got third in the €5,300 Main Event of the 2017 PokerStars Championship Barcelona.
Other big names who will return for Day 2 include Rafi Elharar (342,000), Matias Ruzzi (181,000), Pedro Cairat (102,000) and Remi Castaignon (95,000). Ruzzi won this same tournament in 2014 and Cairat took it down in 2017. They will both be looking to claim the title a second time.
Some of the players who took a shot at the flight but couldn’t make it to the money were PokerStars Ambassadors Felix Schneiders, Maria Konnikova, and Andre Akkari as well as Joao Simao, Katie Lindsay, Alexandre Reard, Florian Duta, Ari Engel, Kitty Kuo, Russell Thomas, Ivo Donev, Cathal Shine, and Matthias Tikerpe.
€1,100 EPT National Barcelona Day 1b
Day 1b of the 2019 PokerStars EPT Barcelona €1,100 EPT National which was the second of four starting flights came to an end when there were 91 players left out of the 606 entries it attracted in total. Just like on Day 1a, the players were allowed to bag up their chips during the 17th level of the day as only 15% of the field would make it through to Day 2.
Claiming the Day 1b chip lead is Louis Salter with 553,000 in chips. Salter collected a bunch of those chips when he first got Yves Sanchez to give up on his hand with a three-bet. Fadhil Farag who did make the call, also made the check-call on Salter’s continuation-bet but opted to fold when Salter shoved on him. Salter’s brother Jack might be the more familiar name in the family but Louis is no stranger to the poker felt either. With almost $1.4 million in cashes to his own name, he will be looking to add even more to his bankroll.
Salter is followed by another well-known player, France’s Sonny Franco who bagged 546,000. Almost half of those chips used to belong to Nenad Svetomirovic who five-bet shoved his pocket kings into the aces of Franco. Franco’s best-ever result came to him when he finished in second place in the EPT National High Roller in Prague in 2018 for €206,540. Franco is currently sitting in 1,000th place in the all-time money list according to The Hendon Mob and will be trying to climb into the triple digits.
PokerStars Pro Ramon Colillas also made it to through to Day 2 with 258,000 which unfortunately wasn’t the case for his colleagues, Andre Akkari and Steve Enriquez. The defending champion Jean-René Fontaine was eliminated by Manuel Fritz when he failed to win his final all-in with ace-jack. Fritz’s pocket fives held up to send the friendly Fontaine to the rail who will have to try again on Day 1c or 1d. Fritz himself then found his Waterloo when Barak Wisbrod got lucky to hit the river to send Fritz to the rail before being able to bag for Day 2.
In the end, it would be Gianluca Speranza, who you might know from making history by winning back-to-back SCOOP Main Events, who would burst the so-called bubble to take the field down to 91 players. Olof Olofsson held pocket eights while Speranza had ace-jack. Olofsson couldn’t hold and that signaled the end of the day for the rest of the field.
Other notable players making it through include Dario Marinelli, Natalie Teh, Josep Galindo, Alexander Lakhov, and Artur Rudziankov. Less lucky were players like Jean-Noel Thorel, Petar Kalev, Paul Lozano, Javier Zarco, Espen Uhlen Jorstad, Bart Lybaert, Sander van Wesemael, Joao Simao, Carlos Branco, Renato Kaneoya, and many more.
The two remaining flights of the EPT National kick off on Thursday, August 22 at noon and 7 p.m., respectively. Follow along with PokerNews live reporting for all the latest from Barcelona!
