Online Crusher Simon Mattsson Leads After Day 2 of EPT Barcelona Main
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All Day 1 survivors of the record-breaking 2019 PokerStars EPT Barcelona €5,300 EPT Main Event combined to one field for the first time in the Salon Gaudi at Casino Barcelona and a new attendance record was already secured before the cards went back in the air.
However, the late registration for the flagship tournament of the festival remained open until the start of the day and another 28 entries boosted the field size to 1,988 entries to create a prize pool of €9,641,800.
With more than 700 players taking seats, tournament staff added an additional sixth level of 90 minutes to the schedule and not only did the money bubble burst, but the field was cut down all the way to just 191 survivors.
Mattsson in the Lead
When it came to bagging and tagging, just two players boasted a stack of more than 1 million in chips and it was Simon "C. Darwin2" Mattsson that claimed the lead with 1,191,000 ahead of Alexis Ibarrola (1,069,000).
Mattsson, while having over $1.3 million in live cashes, is best known for beasting at the virtual felt, where he has amassed a titanic ledger over $13 million in winnings and is widely considered one of the world's best.
Other big stacks at the conclusion of Day 2 belong to Andres Korn (974,000), Jean Ferreira (910,000), Stefan Fabian (810,000), Marian Mik (792,000), Ben Farrell (760,000), Shannon Shorr (734,000), and Diego Falcone (698,000).
Mattsson, while having over $1.3 million in live cashes, is best known for beasting at the virtual felt.
Among the PokerStars ambassadors, only Fatima Moreira de Melo bagged up chips for Day 3. The former hockey professional from the Netherlands claimed 236,000 to her name. Fellow ambassadors Leo Fernandez, Kalidou Sow and Maria Konnikova were eliminated before the money while Steve Enriquez hit the rail in 224th place for €9,160.
Many other big names had to leave without anything dough, including back-to-back high roller champion Juan Pardo, Michael Addamo, Mustapha Kanit, Bryn Kenney, defending champion Piotr Nurzynski.
Branco Bubbles
The money bubble itself was a brief affair as hand-for-hand never kicked in.
Two players away from the money, the clocks were stopped to verify the number of remaining hopefuls and in the first hand after that, two eliminations on different tables let the bubble burst. It was Carlos Branco who ended up as the bubble boy when he lost a flip with ace-king against the jacks of Alexis Urli.
More than 100 players would head to the payout desk after the bubble to collect their winnings. Among them were Patrik Antonius, Anton Wigg, Sergio Aido, Dario Sammartino, Martin Jacobson and Tony Dunst.
Antonius limp-shoved with pocket fives in a battle of the blinds and was called by Joao Monte Studart with ace-ten suited, with a ten hitting on the river. Jacobson also ended up second-best with pocket fives, against the king-queen of Keisuke Hikosaka.
On to Day 3
All remaining 191 hopefuls will return to their seats at noon local time, and the blinds will recommence at 3,000/6,000/6,000. A 30-second shot clock will be in play as of Day 3 and for the remainder of the tournament. Another six levels of 90 minutes are scheduled with a 75-minute dinner break upon completion of the fourth level.
The minimum payout locked up so far is €10,030, but all contenders in the biggest EPT Main Event in Barcelona have their hopes set on the massive top prize of €1,659,000.
Stay tuned to see who makes it one step closer to writing history at Casino Barcelona, the PokerNews team will provide all the action from start-to-finish.
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