The March to the Final Table Begins as 24 Look to Become Eight
The European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event will continue today as the final 24 players of 1,234-player field will battle down to the final table of eight.
For the second day in a row, Tom “hitthehole” Middleton begins play as the chip leader. He sits on a stack of 3.886 million, which is nearly 700,000 more than his next closest compeitior Alejandro Perez, who will start with 3.3 million. Another man with a big stack is Anaras Alekberovas, who finished fourth in this very event last year. The Lithuanian is looking to make back-to-back final tables, which would be an incredible feat considering the size of the field the past two years.
Headed into the penultimate day, there are still two players left in the Skrill Last Longer competition – Middleton and Bulgarian player Valentino Konakchiev. Whichever one of them lasts longer in the tournament will received their €5,300 buy-in back courtesy of Skrill, the official payment provider sponsor of EPT Season 10. It’s a small pittance compared to the €1,067,000 first-place prize, but rest assured we’ll be keeping an eye on that storyline.
Speaking of the top prize, there is plenty of tough competition among the final 24 including Kimmo Kurko (2,427,000), Eduard Bhaggoe (1,637,000), Rens Feensta (1,255,000), Pasi Sormunen (703,000) and Julian Thomas (230,000). Some have big stack, others not so much, but the one thing they all have is a shot at becoming the next EPT champion.
Action will kick off in a little over an hour here at the Casino Barcelona. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews' live coverage as we bring you all the action and eliminations from the tournament floor. Until then, check out this interview from Day 1 of the €10,000 High Roller were Kristy Arnett asked Peter Jetter to “Explain This.”