€1,100 EPT National Draws Over 4,000 Runners; Benzerfa Claims Day 1c Lead
After a fifteen-hour day in a densely packed Casino Barcelona, all Day 1's of the €1,100 EPT National at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona have come to an end. On Day 1c, a whopping 1,864 players showed up to take a shot at the already gigantic prize pool of over four million euro. Together with the 844 players that registered for the late night Day 1d turbo, a total of more than 4,300 entries were made in this event, just shy of last year's record-setting number of 4,557 entrants. The official number of players and payout will be confirmed at the start of Day 2.
Like all other starting days, Day 1c played down towards the final 15% before play would be suspended for the night. 280 players would eventually survive and will all start Day 2 directly in the money. It took over 17 full levels of 40 minutes each before that number was reached, which featured an instantly classic bubble hand with [Removed:328] and Foeke Deinum claiming the lead roles. Holding pocket kings, [Removed:329] was looking great to double through Deinum's queens. A queen on the turn all but ended it, but a king on the river gave [Removed:329] the winner, which was met by a thunderous roar from the crowd. David Hearn would proceed to bubble in the following hand, which paved the way for the other 280 towards the cash.
[Removed:388] was top dog after the 17 levels and bagged 710,000 total to claim the overnight chip lead. Cesar Plaza (645,000), Jean Fontaine (622,000), Simeon Spasov (504,000), Zlatin Penev (481,000) and Michal Kolano (480,000) also bagged far more than the average stack of slightly under 200k.
A field of 1,864 logically sported many a familiar face and among the notables, it was Ludovic Geilich who had a strong showing throughout Day 1c. Geilich never appeared to be under average at any point and bagged 405,000 at the end of the night. Jerome Sgorrano (363,000), Joris Ruys (288,000), Marti Roca de Torres (168,000) and Tobias Peters (162,000) also added a Spanish flag to their respective Hendon Mobs. Defending champion Pedro Cairat saw his quest for an unprecedented back-to-back continue as he found a bag with 223,000 in chips.
The Red Spade had a terrible starting day, with none of their pros making it through in the penultimate flight. Fatima Moreira de Melo, Randy Lew, Celina Lin, Jeff Gross, Andre Akkari, and Maria Konnikova all ran out of chips during the fifteen-hour day. They were accompanied on the rail by Bart Lybaert, Adam Owen, Leo Margets, Jussi Nevanlinna, Will Kassouf, Benny Glaser, Chris Moorman, and Richard Milne. All of them either moved on to Day 1d or gave up altogether on trying to make it through in this event.
There's no rest for the wicked and certainly not much for those that made their respective ways through Day 1c and Day 1d. At noon local time, cards will already be back in the air as the 650 remaining players will return for another long day at the tables. PokerStars will provide a shot in the arm right off the bat, as one of the coveted $30,000 Platinum Passes will be up for grabs directly at the start of the day. A Crazy Pineapple Flip Out Hand on each table will eventually decide who will walk away with the chance of a lifetime: playing the $25K PokerStars Players NL Hold'em Championship on the Bahama's in January 2019.
Blinds will recommence in Level 18 with the small blind at 4,000, the big blind at 8,000 and the big blind ante also at 8,000. Levels will be 60 minutes for the remainder of the tournament. The total prize pool and payouts will be announced at the start of Day 2, although all survivors know they at least will receive a monetary reward for their accomplishment.
PokerNews will be back after the short night as well so come back on Friday at 12 p.m. for continued coverage of the €1,100 EPT National at the EPT in Barcelona!