De Lucio Sanchez Tops Day 1c in Barcelona; Eubank Jr Among the Bigger Stacks
The third and penultimate starting day of the 2022 888poker LIVE Barcelona €1,100 Main Event has concluded. In the biggest flight thus far, 110 entries emerged to boost the overall field to 276 entries with the turbo heat 1d to follow on Sunday, May 22, 2022 at Casino Barcelona.
Upon completion of ten levels of 45 minutes each, more than half of the contestants were gone without anything to show for. Just 48 players bagged up chips and Alejandro De Lucio Sanchez topped the leaderboard with a stack of 199,100. The lead was the direct result of a three-way all-in during the final hands of the night in which a roller coaster runout saw the best pocket pair preflop prevail eventually.
Most players in the top ten on Day 1c hail from Spain with a few notable exceptions. Simone Ricci (139,900), Alin Grasu (133,000), and 888poker ambassador Chris Eubank Jr (114,300) broke through the Spanish domination and gave themselves a decent chance at a deep run in the marquee event of the series. Grasu has bagged up chips on all three starting days so far and takes the largest tally onto Day 2.
888poker LIVE Barcelona €1,100 Main Event Day 1c Top 10 Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds Day 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alejandro De Lucio Sanchez | Spain | 199,100 | 166 |
| 2 | Carlos Fernandez Delgado | Spain | 178,000 | 148 |
| 3 | Simone Ricci | Italy | 139,900 | 117 |
| 4 | Alin Grasu | Romania | 133,000 | 111 |
| 5 | Bernat Carreras Moragrega | Spain | 131,600 | 110 |
| 6 | Gerard Carbo | Spain | 114,800 | 96 |
| 7 | Chris Eubank Jr | United Kingdom | 114,300 | 95 |
| 8 | Carlos Diez Martinez | Spain | 112,400 | 94 |
| 9 | Guillermo Nuez Escribano | Spain | 107,200 | 89 |
| 10 | Jorge Ufano | Spain | 99,500 | 83 |
For the professional boxer from the UK, Day 1 seemed to be destined for an early finish after he lost a flip with queens versus ace-king to be left with fumes. Eubank Jr then re-entered and scored a double-up during the final hand of the night to bag up the seventh-biggest stack.
888poker Stream Team member Jordan Banfield joined Eubank Jr to survive the day and advanced with a stack of 75,600. They were the only brand ambassadors to join the action while several online qualifiers and invited MVP players also took part as well. Among then, Bogdan Sovaiala fared the best with 97,700 in chips while fellow Romanian Mihai Borlovan and Marios Ioannides made it through with short stacks.
Among the other notables, Sergi Escote (91,700) Patrick Kallas (78,500) Finnish poker pro Kimmo Kurko (73,800), the 2017 WSOP Europe Main Event winner Marti Roca de Torres (62,500) and Dan Cates (37,700) all made it through as well.
One player to dominate the tables and chatter with his jovial attitude for most of the day was the UK's Kian "the eliminator" Khaleghian. He ran it up all the way to more than five times the starting stack before it all came to an end during the final hands of the night. In a flip against Aladin Mrkaljevic, his nines flopped a set but four hearts on the board gave Mrkaljevic the nut flush.
Notable casualties on the biggest starting day thus far were Alain Riss, Soraya Estrada, Kristian Larsson, Wayne Leung, David Kaesler, Jesus Rodriguez Lopez, Petru Tarlev and €2,200 High Roller runner-up Warren Aspey.
They all have a chance to join the turbo heat 1d as of 11am local time on Sunday, May 22, 2022, which features a level duration of 20 minutes each ahead of the Day 2 restart at 4pm local time. The late registration and re-entry period will be open for the first two 60-minute levels and following break.
Among the returning players for Day 2 will also be Ian Simpson, who was revealed as the newest ambassador for 888poker. The former Irish Open Main Event champion will return with an above-starting stack and attempt to win the next major title on the live poker circuit in his first official event for the new sponsor.
Returning blinds will be 600-1,200 with a big blind ante of 1,200. Day 2 is scheduled to play a total of ten levels of 60 minutes each or down to the final table, whichever of the two comes first. The PokerNews live reporting team will be back then to provide all the action and the live stream feature table on the 888poker TV YouTube and Twitch channels gets underway after the first break.